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c yP(^ cT. :s<r
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
Reproduced from the painting by James Sharpies.
I NTRODUCTOR Y.
■•©♦©••—
In such a work as the one to whicli the reader is introduced through
these pages, one traverses over many countries and down the centuries to
the present time, following along the way marked by woman's course, her
paths of thought and activities, her genius, skill and achievements, modi-
tied or enlarged and increased by conditions, circumstances and environ-
ments, such as birth, inheritance, education and opportunities incident to
the period of time in which she lived, and other possibilities or hindrances ;
but always the ''eternal womanly ' * is apparent, making the distinct difference
in sex as given by the divine Creator when He made them male and female,
and in thfa the beauty and harmony of life lias its highest culmination and
brings to pass the full fruition of the hopes and aspirations of mankind.
This book shows what woman's power for good has been in the past and
in the present, and, looking forward and judging from the spirit of the times
and the civilization and enlightenment of future periods compared to the
past and even to our own day and time, the women of the future will he so
far advanced in all things beautiful and glorious that the past will sink into
insignificance by contrast. And yet, however grand the structure woman
may build for herself hereafter, she must remember, with some degree of
reverence, that she has only reached a hii^her pinnacle because her prede-
cessors laid so deep, so strong and so endurable a foundation for her to
climb upward upon to a higher attainment of excellence.
The devotion and consecration of the lives of such women, as some
whose biogniphies are herein written (and many more whose record is as
noble and worthy to be handed down to j)osterity), provtr they have been
in-^trumental in paving the wav through difficulties and overcoming obstacles
that sfeme<l ff>rmidable ; and they are therefore worthy the honor of future
generations h(»wever great may Ixr the success of their achievements.
The value of the lessons to Ix* learned from reading such a hook as the
publishers of " Woman " offer to thtr |)ubli<: cannot he estimated. To know
what has been done by women, or to judge of their inner life by outward
INTRODUCTORY.
acts (even only by the few representatives of their time), combines a goodly
part of the world's progress, for woman is essentially a character builder.
As a whole, the work is unsurpassed in its general character by any
of its kind known to the writer ; as it deals with no one question, no one
country, but with woman in a universal sense as a part of the world's history
in the great drama of life.
Every library, public or private, will be more complete by adding to its
list a copy of this valuable work, and every home in city, town or village
would be enriched by its possession and perusal.
The typographical work and illustrations commend it at a glance, and
the first impression one has in looking at the book is favorable, because of
the excellence of material used and durability of its workmanship generally;
aside from the subject and general tone of its contents.
r^^^i^ii^ .^^^^ife^^ife-:^ j
WOMAN
4 I
I t I Her
^ s^fe - I Position,
\ Designed ! Influence,
^ and I '
^ Arranged i And
% vviuiam'c. King. ! Achievement
^ z — Throughout the
^ -^^^ Civilized World.
^ « Her Biography m Her History. #
,; FROM THK
. I PRKPAREI) BY
1 Garden of Eden ^ r n o 1 1
t Careiuiiy oelected
-! TO THE TT7^*
; Writers.
< I'wentieth Century. , .0^.
-f>^v ILLUSTRATED.
J Springfield, Mass.
^ The King-Richardson Co.
< San Jose. Chicago. Indianapolis.
-^ IQ02.
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
JUL 1 1914
CHARLES ELLIOTT PERKINS
MEMORIAL COLLECTION
:^^
*^^
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS.
••ofo**
Henry AVoldmar Ruoff, D.C.L. Marcus Benjamin, Ph.D.
A utkar of » * Home and State ^ * * * * Ongin Superintendent of U, S. National Museum .
of the Family ^^^ Etc. Co-editor of the Universal Cyclopedia.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, LL.D.
Historian J Essayist, Lecturer.
May Wright Sewall, Rev. James W. Cole,
Author^ Educator y Lecturer. Author of * ' Our Noblest Birthright, ' ' ^^ Dignity
President of the Women *s international Council. of Labor, ' * Etc.
W. H. P. Faunce, D.D., LL.D.
President of Brown University .
Anna A. Gordon, Rev. Willard E. Waterbury,
I'lcePres. Woman s Christian Temperance Author of "■ Religion in the
Union. Home,'" Etc.
David Starr Jordan, LL.D.
President Lcland Stanford fr. University.
Edward W. Bok, Anna Le Porte Diggs,
Author and four ttalist. fournalist; Author of ^^ Liberalism in the
Editor Ladies' Home fournal. West,'" Etc.
Helen^i Modjeska,
Shakesperian Actress and Scholar.
William C. King, Bishop John H. Vincent, LL.D.
Pretidtnl of The King- Richardson Company. Author, Preacher, Educator.
PREKACK.
i )K ¥
IV [O one fact in the progress of civilization has been more
J prominent than the advancement of woman. This is
especially true since the discovery of the New World ;
but at no period of the world's history, when great movements
were taking place, was it inconspicuous. The level of civilized
life has rarely been above the condition of woman ; the one iS,
in a sense, the measure of the other.
If to-day we boast of a higher civilization than the past
vouchsafed to our ancestors, it is because the potent influences
of womanly life and grace have been extended to almost every
phase of modern activity, refining it, modulating it, and uplift-
ing it. Not only the home, but literature, art, and the multi-
fold enterprises of the workaday world have felt the impress
of this higher personality, and have been ennobled and bet-
tered by it.
Such being true, can any story exceed in interest and inspi-
ration this drama of woman's development, — a drama whose
prologue is set in the midst of beautiful legends, whose charac-
ters embrace the most renowned female actors in history —
queens and peasants, the bond and the free — and whose
epilogue lies in the far distant future, approachable by prophecy
only ? Woman has been the theme of poets, the ideal of artists
and sculptors, the regent of the home, a creator and patroness
10
.PREFACE.
of literature, a powerful leader of men, and the record of her
achievements deserves to be perpetuated as an important part
of the heritage of the race.
Under, such convictions the following pages have resulted
from long maturing plans. It has been designed to give a
complete and succinct narrative of the development of woman
from the earliest, almost prehistoric, times down to the begin-
ning of the twentieth century, with so much of its detail as
may be properly included in a work of this scope. A very
important part of the plan is the selection of a large number
of biographies of the celebrated women of the various periods
to both vividly picture the social conditions of the times and
to afford illustrations of the power for good or evil of these
extraordinary personages.
To aid in the consummation of this plan, specially equipped
writers have been enlisted and assigned to various tasks in
connection with the work.
This joint authorship is in itself, we hope, a feature of
strength and gives a variety of treatment that could not well
be gained in any other way.
The illustrations have been drawn from the best sources,
and the pictures of the most eminent artists are thus made to
supplement and embellish the work of the biographer and
the historian.
^OO'^g'OQc
11
BOOKS OF THIS VOLUME
BOOK ONE
WOMAN BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA
From Bden to Christ
o
BOOK TWO
WOMAN nrRING THE FIRST FOUR CHRISTIAN CENTURIES
To Fall of the Roman Empire
♦
BOOK THREE
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES
From the Fall of Rome to the Crusades
o
BOOK FOUR
WOMAN UNDER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS
To Discovery of America
( I lcx> to 1500)
♦
BOOK FIVE
THE DAWN OF WOMAN'S POWER
Period of Intellectual Awakening
( 1500 to 1800)
BOOK SIX
THE GOLDEN AGE OF WOMAN'S ACHIEVEMENT
A Century of Unparalleled Progress.
(1800 to 1900)
' .|. -
BOOK SEVEN
CONTRIBUTION OF WOMAN TO MODERN CIVILIZATION
BOOK ONE.
WOMAN BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
FROM EDEN TO CHRIST.
-»— m— ^-
Prepared by REV. JAMES W. COLE.
WOMEN OF PRE-CHRISTIAN FAME
Eve, Ancestress of the Human Race,
Sarah, the Princess,
Hagar. Mother of Ishniael,
Rebekah, Mother of Jacob and Esau,
Miriam, the Prophetess,
Deborah, Deliverer of Israel at Mt. Tabor,
Rachel, the Beloved
The Witch of Endor, ....
Nofritari, Wife of Ahmosis Pharaoh,
Hatasu, Egyptian Queen and Explorer,
Out^n Tii. Mother of Amenothes IV.,
Thermuthis, Foster Mother of Moses,
Helen of Troy, ....
Semiramis, (^)u(en of Assyria,
Jephthahs Daughter,
Delilah, Betrayer of Samson,
i:i
Page
29
33
36
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
4S
51
52
53
54
57
BOOK ONE — CONTINUED,
Ruth, the Gleaner,
Hannah, Mother of Samuel the Prophet,
Queen of Sheba, ....
Abigail, the Beautiful Peacemaker,
Jezebel, the Tyrannical Queen,
Princess Dido, Founder of Carthage,
Judith, Slayer of Holofernes,
Sappho, Greatest Greek Poetess, .
Queen Esther, the '* Lily of Shushan,'*
Lucretia, Victim of the Tarquins,
Aspasia, Athenian Courtesan,
Xantippe, Wife of Socrates, .
Artemisia, Queen of Caria,
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi,
Octavia, Wife of Marc Antony,
Mariamne, W^ife of Herod,
Cleopatra, Egyptian Queen, .
POSITION OF WOMAN IN PRE-CHRISTUN CIVILIZATION
The Bible — First Woman — Primeval Civilization — The Ancient World — Aque-
ous Belt — The Deluge — Euphrates Valley — Story of the Tablets — Cities
and pbuses — Position of the Wife — Children — Slaves — The Priesthood —
The Temple — Planetary Worship — Egypt — Husband and Wife — Palestine
— Moloch — Priests of Jezebel — Europe — India and China — The Suttee —
Caste in India — Transmigration — China — Teachings of Confucius — Re-
generation
14
Page
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
81-102
BOOK TWO.
WOMAN DURING THE FIRST FOUR CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.
TO FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
Prepared by REV. WILLARD E. WATERBURY.
LEADING WOMEN OF THE PERIOD.
Page
Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist, 105
Mary, Mother of Christ, 106
Mary Magdalene, . . . . . . . / . 108
Herodias and Salome, ........ 109
Agrippina, Mother of Nero, . . . . . . . .110
Martha and Mary, . . . . . . . .113
D< 'rcas, Oiieen of the Needle, . . . . . . . 1 14
L<»is and Eunice, .......... 115
Lydia. Christian Convert, . . . . . .116
Kf>>nina, Heroine of Conjugal Affection, . . . . .117
Priscilla. Missionary Tent-maker, . . . . . . 118
Phcebe. Deaconess of Cenchrea, . . . . . .119
B'viidicea, British Queen, . . . . . . . .120
Bcrnice, Daughter of Herod Agrippa, . . . . .123
Blandin.i. Slave (jirl, . . . . . . . .124
IVrjKt\ia and Kelicitas, . . . . . . . .125
Julia Mainmaa, Mother of Severus, . . . . . .126
H»'l«n.i. Mother of Constantine the Great, . . . . . 127
Zenohia. r)ueen of Palmyra, .... ... 128
Alines and .Anastasia, Martyrs, . . . . .129
N'»na, M«»thtT of (iregory, ........ 130
M*»nica, Mother of Augustine, ....... 133
I'aula. Friend of Kducation, . . . . . . . .134
Olympian, Christian Philanthropist, . . . . .135
Hvf.-itia. Philosopher of Alexandria, ...... 136
pill* heria and Fudocia, .... ... 137
r,f'nf\ieve, Patrf»n Saint of Paris, . . . .139
Fabiola, Founder of Roman Hospital, . . . . .140
WOMAN FROM THE TIME OF CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
Koman Empire — Emperors — Claudius— Ser*) — Causes of 1 )fcay — Teutonic ][\-
\ asion'< — Social Conditions — Infanticide - - Public Ciames — Christian Legis-
lation — Human Equality 14;? 1 54
16
BOOK THREE.
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
FROM THE FALL OF ROME TO THE CRUSADES.
A. D. 500 TO 1 100.
Prepared by HENRY WOLDMAR RUOFF.
-s=^-
PROMINENT WOMEN OF THE DARK AGES
Brunehaut, Queen of the Franks, .
Amalasontha, Victim of Intrigue, .
Radegonde, Courageous and Pious Queen,
Queen Bertha, Founder of Church in Canterbury,
Chrodielde, Nun, ......
Theodora, Wife of Justinian, ....
Fredegonda, Rival of Brunehaut, .
Ayeshah, Second Wife of Mahomet,
Fatima, Daughter of Mahomet, ^.
Theodelinda, Zealous Christian,
Ermengarde, Queen of Charlemagne,
Irene, Empress of Constantinople,
Abassa, Sister of Haroun al Raschid,
Judith, Queen of Louis I., .
Angelberga, Queen of Louis II. of Italy,
Ethelfleda, Wife of Etheldred,
Gerberge, Wife of Louis IV. of France,
Page
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
169
170
171
172
176
177
178
-J++J-
GENERAL CONDITIONS OP WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
Social and Political Changes — Feudal System — Feudal Institutions — Feudal
Castle — Castle Life — Children — Advance of Woman — Rise of Chivalry
— Morals and Amusements — Elevation of the Wife — I^gal Restraints —
Position of the Church — Chu/ch and Everyday Life — Conventual System
— Influence of Monasticism — Divorce 181-190
16
BOOK FOUR.
WOMAN UNDER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
A. D. iioo TO 1500.
-•H-X-h-* —
Prepared by HENRY WOLDMAR RUOFF.
PROMINENT WOMEN OF MEDIEVAL TIMES.
Anna Comnena, Greek Scholar,
Heloise, Pupil and Mistress of Abelard, .
Countess of Tripoli, ....
Eleanor, Queen of Louis VI L of France,
Berengaria, Wife of Richard the Lion Hearted
Blanche of Castile, ....
Philippa, Founder of Queen's College, Oxford
Mary, Anglo-Saxon Poetess, .
Elizabeth of Hungary, Saindy Princess, .
Beatrice, Inspiration of Dante,
Laura, Immortalized by Petrarch, .
Jane of Flanders, .....
Catharine of Siena, ....
Juliana Berners, Founder of Sopewell Nunnery,
Catharine of Valois, Queen of France,
Joan of Arc, French Heroine,
J<^n Beaufort, Mother of James II. of Scotland
Aj^nes Sorel, '* Fairest of the Fair,"
Mari^aret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VII.,
Mar>iaret Beaufort, Mother of Henry VII.,
Isal>ella. Queen of Spain,
.•Xnne, Daughter of Louis XI. of France,
Anne of Bretagne, Patroness of Learning,
LucTc/ia Borgia, Daughter of Alexander VI.,
{+.+}
Page
194
196
198
201
202
203
204
205
206
209
210
211
212
215
217
218
219
221
222
226
227
228
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL WOMEN.
Hereditan' Rights — Woman's Marital Position — Religion and Love — Trouba-
dours— Kffects of Chivalry — The Feminine Sphere — Castle Education —
Decline of Chivalry — Teachings of True Chivalry — Among the Masses —
The Tavern — A Medieval Picture — Public Baths — Town Life — Morals
— Superstitious Devotion — Convents — Learning — Dress — National Pecul-
iarities in Dress — Fashions 231-242
17
BOOK FIVE.
THE DAWN OF WOMAN'S POWER.
PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING.
A. D. 1500 TO 1800.
Prepared by HENRY WOLDMAR RUOFF.
PROMINENT WOMEN OP THE AWAKENING PERIOD.
Page
Catharine, First Wife of Henry VIII., 245
Margaret, Queen of Navaire, ....... 246
Anne Boleyn, Second Wife of Henry VIII., 247
Anne Askew, Martyr, ......... 248
Margaret Roper, Daughter of Sir Thomas More, .... 249
Mary I., Queen of England, ........ 250
Lady Jane Grey, . . . . . . . . . .251
Catharine de* Medici, ......... 252
Elizabeth, Queen of England, ....... 255
Mary, Queen of Scots, ......... 257
Eleonora D'Este, Beloved by Tasso, . . . . . .261
Gabrielle D'Estrees, ......... 262
Beatrice of Cenci, ** Beautiful Parricide," ..... 263
Margaret of Valois, Profligate Queen, ...... 264
Pocahontas, Indian Heroine, ........ 265
Anne of Austria, .......... 266
Anne Hutchinson, Religious Reformer, ...... 267
Lady Fanshavve, . . . . . . . . . 268
Catharine Philips, Early English Writer, 269
Christina of Sweden, ......... 270
Lady Pakington, Authoress and Moralist, . . . . .271
Madame de Maintenon, . . . . . . . . ,272
Tarquinia Molsa, Beauty and Wit, . . . . . .273
Louise de la Valliere, 274
18
BOOK FIVE— CONTINUED.
Anne Dacier, Scholar and Linguist,
Anne Killigrew, Artist and Poetess,
Queen Anne, English Sovereign, .
Mar>' Astell, English Authoress and Linguist,
Abigail Masham, Favorite of Queen Anne,
Mar>' IL, Queen of England,
Catharine L of Russia,
Lady Montagu, Social Leader,
Marie Deffand,
Marquise du Chatelet, .
I^dy Huntingdon, Religious Philanthropist,
Maria Theresa, Empress of Germany,
Catharine IL, Empress of Russia, .
Madame de la Roche, German Authoress,
Martha Washington, ....
Charlotte Corday, French Heroine,
Madame de Stael, ....
Abigail Adams, .....
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France,
NLidame Roland, Martyr of the French Revolution,
Louise, Queen of Prussia, . . . . .
Elizal>eth Hamilton, Irish Authoress,
Josephine, Wife of Napoleon, ....
Page
275
276
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
290
294
295
296
298
302
303
307
309
310
311
WOMAN DURING THE PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING.
sixteenth Century — Renaissance — Study of Languages — Spread of Learning
— Revival in England — Notable Personages — Seventeenth Century — Lng-
land in the Eighteenth Century — Germany — Spain — America — (icneral
Social Conditions in Europe — Imitation of French Manners — Example of
rerversion — Courts of Turin and Milan — Forms of Pleasure and P^lniploy-
ment — (lerman Court — Vienna — Maria Theresa — Court of Frederick
William — Saxon Women — French Influence in (iermany — P^ffects of the
Seven Years* War — French Revolution — Causes - Society Under Louis
XVL— Grand Opera — Beginning of the Carnage — A Vital (Question —
Woman's Patriotism — Madame I^ Hon — Public Executions - - Chariotte
Corday and Marie Antoinette — Scenes at Execution — Diffusion of French
Manners — Th« English Woman — Inequality of Woman's Rights — (Ger-
man Law Touching Woman — Later Property Rights 315 340
10
BOOK SIX.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF WOMAN'S ACHIEVEMENT.
A CENTURY OF UNPARALLELED PROGRESS.
A. D. 1800 TO 1900.
-•--?-*-i-i
Prepared by REV. WILLARD E. WATERBURY.
<>- ►^— <>^
LEADING WOMEN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Page
Hannah More, .......... 343
Caroline Herschel, ......... 344
Hannah Adams, 345
Joanna Baillie, 346
Madame D'Arblay, 347
Elizabeth Inchbald, 348
Sarah Siddons, 349
Maria Edgeworth, 350
Jane Austen, . , . . 353
Madame R6camier, ......... 354
Frances Trollope, . , . . . . . . . -355
Jane and Anna Porter, 356
Mary F. Somerville, . 357
Mary Russell Mitford, 358
Emma Willard, 359
Ann Hasseltine Judson, . 360
Catherine M. Sedgwick, . 361
Felicia Hemans, . . . . . . . . . . 362
Lydia H. Sigourney, 365
Lucretia Mott, .......... 366
20
BOOK SIX— CONTINUED.
Agnes Strickland,
Mary Lyon, .
Anna Jameson.
Fredrika Bremer,
Harriet L. Martineau,
Dorothea L. Dix,
Henriette Sontag,
Lydia Maria Child,
Madame Diidevant,
Elizabeth B. Browning,
Margaret Fuller Ossoli,
Elizabeth C. Gaskell,
** Fanny Fern,**
Harriet Beecher Stowe,
I.uise Muhlbach, .
Charlotte Cushman,
Charlotte Bront^, .
Lucy Stone, .
Maria Mitchell,
Alice and Fhcebe Cary,
" (»eorge Eliot,"
Jenny Lind, .
Madam Hlavatsky,
Lucy Larcom,
Dinah NLiria Mulock,
kosii Bonheur,
Christina i>. Rossetti,
Catherine Booth, .
Helen Hunt Jackson,
Jean Ingclow,
Page
368
369
370
371
37^
373
374
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
387
389
391
392
393
394
395
396
399
400
401
402
404
405
21
BOOK SIX— CONTINUED.
Amelia B. Edwardsj
Lucy Webb Hayes,
Louisa May Alcott,
Euphrosyne Parepa Rosa,
Mary Abigail Dodge,
Frances E. Willard,
Susan B. Anthony,
Frances Power Cobbe, .
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Julia Ward Howe,
Harriet G. Hosmer,
Harriet Prescott Spofford,
Belva A. Lock wood,
Louise Chandler Moulton,
Lady Henry Somerset,
Mary N. Murfree,
Queen Victoria,
Anna E. Dickinson,
Fanny J. Crosby,
Mary H. Hunt,
Margaret Oliphant,
Mrs. Humphry Ward,
Clara Barton,
Florence Nightingale,
Adelaide Ristori, .
Elizabeth Blackwell,
Charlotte M. Yonge,
Empress Eugenie,
Baroness Burdett-Coutts,
Mary A. Livermore,
Page
406
409
410
411
412
413
415
416
417
418
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
429
431
432
433
434
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
22
BOOK SIX— CONTINUED.
Page
** Grace Greenwood/* 445
Clara Louise Kellogg, ......... 446
Frances Hodgson Burnett, 449
Mrs. Frank Leslie, ......... 450
* 'Marian Harland,** 451
Vinnie Ream Hoxie, 452
Margaret E. Sangster, 453
Adelina Patti, . 454
Elizabeth Storrs Mead 455
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, ........ 456
Mrs. Potter Palmer, 459
Pundita Ramabai, . . ' . . . . . . 460
Empress Dowager of China, .462
Helen Miller Gould, . 464
Marie Corelli, . 465
Mrs. Frances Cleveland, ........ 466
\arina Anne Davis, ......... 467
Mrs. Leland Stanford, ......... 468
-*-o-
A CENTURY OF ACHIEVEMENT.
Nineteenth Century — General Advancement — Civil War — The Awakening —
Sanitary ('onimission — Its First Marked Influence — Aid Associations —
Methods of Securing Money — Nursing — Work of Clara Barton — Mrs. Liv-
ermore — Mrs. Iloge — Women in Battle — " Mother " Bickerdyke — Profes-
sional Nursing — Nursing in England — Women of the South — Recent
Advance — Woman and the Ballot — Worcester Convention — Wyoming
KesolatioD — Status in Colorado — W^oman and Property Rights — Beginning
of Reform — In Europe — Epitome of Rights — Teaching 469-490
23
BOOK SEVEN.
CONTRIBUTION OF WOMAN TO MODERN
CIVILIZATION.
Page
Woman in Literature, 493
By Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Woman's Achievement in Invention and Science, . 506
By Marcus Benjamin.
Woman in the Professions, 517
By Rev. Willard E. Waterbury.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 526
By Anna A. Gordon.
What Woman has done with her Pen, .... 543
By Edward W. Bok.
Woman and the Stage 552
By Helena Modjeska.
Woman's Higher Education, 563
By David Starr Jordan.
Woman as an Artist, 570
By Several Writers.
Woman in the Alliance Movement, 581
Qy Anna Le Porte Diggs.
Woman as a Wage-Earner, 601
By Rev. Willard S. Waterbury.
Woman in Philanthropy, 611
By Several Writers.
Woman in Educational Progress, 624
By President William H. P. Faunae.
Woman in Social Reform, 630
By May Wright Sewall.
Woman in World-Wide Missions, 648
By William C. King.
Woman in the Home, 656
By Bishop John H. Vincent.
24
LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS.
.^e^^z-w-'rBs-
Portrait of Martha Washington,
Type of the Egyptian Woman,
Departure of Hagar,
Finding of Moses,
Samson and Delilah,
Lucretia,
Antony and Cleopatra,
Mary. Mother of Christ,
Shipwreck of Agrippina,
Queen Boadicea, .
Augustine and His Mother, Monica,
A Roman Boudoir,
Death of Brunehaut,
Saladin,
Mohammedan Woman,
Court Life in Granada,
Alnwick Castle,
Blanche of Castile,
Petrarch and Laura,
Jo.m <»f Arc, .
Isabella Hearing Columbus,
Castle Life in the Middle Ages,
Trial of Oueen Catharine,
Oueen Llizabeth Signing the Death Warrant of Mar
Kleonora D'Este Entertaining Tasso,
Portrait <>f Queen Anne,
Portrait of Catharine II. of Russia,
Portrait of Madame de Stael,
Madame Roland in Prison,
First Meeting of Dante and Beatrice,
Empress Maria Theresa,
Marie Antoinette Condemned,
F\»rtrait of Queen Victoria,
Portrait Group, ....
Abigail Adams — Hannah More — Jane Austen —
D'Arblay — Sarah Siddons.
25
Queen of
Frontispiece
28
37
50
56
68
11
104
III
121
132
142
156
167
173
180
192
200
207
214
223
230
244
254
260
278
291
299
306
314
326
336
342
Scots
Madame
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait Group, ..........
Felicia Hemans — Madame R^camier — Emma Willard — Lydia
H. Sigourney — Frederika Bremer.
Poitrait Group, ..........
Harriet Martineau — Catherine M. Sedgwick — George Sand —
Lucretia Mott — Mary Lyon.
Portrait Group, .........
Henrietta Sontag — Charlotte Bronte — Charlotte Cushman —
Margaret Fuller Ossoli — Lucy Stone Blackvvell.
Portrait Group, ..........
George Eliot — Christina Rossetti — Maria Mitchell — Jean
Ingelovv — Dinah Maria Craik.
Portrait Group, ..........
Amelia B. Edwards — Lucy Webb Hayes — Helen Hunt Jack-
son — Parepa Rosa — Baroness Burdett-Coutts.
Portrait Group, ..........
Frances Power Cobbe — Julia Ward Howe — Adelaide Ristori —
Harriet Beecher Stowe — Mary A. Livermore.
Portrait Group, ..........
Harriet G. Hosmer — Marian Harland — Empress Eugenie —
Mrs. Belva A. Lock wood — Clara Barton.
Portrait Group, ..........
Rosa Bonheur — Mrs. Frank Leslie — Mary N. Murfree — Clara
Louise Kellogg — Mrs. Jane Stanford.
Portrait Group, ..........
Mrs. Grover Cleveland — Lady Henry Somerset — Mrs. Hum-
phry Ward — Mrs. Potter Palmer — Winnie Davis.
Sappho,
Portrait of Frances E. Willard,
Portrait of Harriet Prescott SpofTord,
Portrait of Jenny Lind, .
Plowing in Nivernais,
Portrait of Lucy Larcom,
In the Hospital, ....
Queen Louise Visiting the Poor,
Breaking Home Ties,
26
364
376
385
398
408
419
436
447
458
492
527
542
553
571
600
610
631
657
EVE.
been seen, for sin was unknown on earth. All was at peace ; there was
harmony between man and God above him and between man and the
beasts below him.
The whole wide, genial planet, with its myriad teeming creatures on hill,
in dale, in river, sea, and sky, was then before our mother Eve ; who, so
vast were her endowments, could and did intelligently converse, not only
with the Deity, but even with the beasts of the field. So usual was this,
her speech both with God and with the, to us, dumb creatures of earth,
that when one possessed of an evil spirit sought to tempt her to evil, its
speech was readily understood, and caused her no surprise ; and then, woe
to the world ! those half-truths told her were believed and acted upon, and
Eve fell, and, falling, dragged down Adam with her, and *' by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin."
Man had placed upon him by Deity but one prohibition. There can be
no development of moral character where self-restraint is wanting. What
was designed for discipline became the occasion of the fall. By the subtle
insinuations of the evil one. Eve was led to doubt the Creator* s justice and
love in withholding anything from her. Fidelity to God was undermined ;
self-gratification gained the ascendency.
Disobedience causes a child to seek to avoid the parent who has been
disobeyed. So it was with the first pair — these children of God in Eden ;
they sought to hide away from their loving Creator. The dread heritage
of sin in all these succeeding centuries has been such that men have been
driving themselves away from God, while he has sought to win them back.
This is not the place to discuss the great problem of the origin of evil.
But it may safely be said that it cannot yet i)e understood how vast was the
change then wrouglit in the nature and person of Eve, and in the destiny
of mankind. It may never be comprehended by mortals. It brought a
change in the operation of the Creator's plans. She and Adam were ban-
ished from Eden, and thereafter led a life of toil and sorrow, until in the
evening of ''the day" foretold them, death brought the next great change
in their hist<^ry.
Nor can it now he dcterniiiucl at what point in the world's history this
most tremendous of all its great events — the coming of sin — took place.
30
EVE.
That oldest of all histories that have come down to u.?, the Bible, purposely
leaves indeterminate the time when Eve was created, and how long she
lived in Eden. More than two hundred different dates have been assigned
to the period, each professedly based upon the Bible, and varying from that
of Rabbi Lipman's of B.C. 3438 to that of Regiomontanus of B.C. 6984.
Archbishop Usher, whose time reckonings are yet put in the English
Bible, professed to determine it so accurately that he named Friday,
October 28th, of the year 4004 B.C., as the time, an effort long since
laughed at as childish.
Where was Eden, the first home of Eve ? No man can tell, but proba-
bly near the upper region of the present Euphrates river. An immense
number of books have been written, and a vast number of theories proposed,
concerning the site of Eden. Some, despairing of finding any locality on
earth correspK)nding to the Genesis account, have put it in that "third
heaven '* to which Paul was caught up, and- where he heard "unspeakable
things.'' Others have located it in the fourth heaven ; some in the seventh
heaven ; some at a point within the moon's orbit ; while recently the
learned president of a great university put forth a labored treatise showing
that Eden was situated at the present North Pole region. Others have
been equally sure that at the Asiatic equator upon a supposed region now
submerged by the Indian Ocean and called Lenniria, was the spot where
the first woman of earth had her home. Other learned men ha\'e as stoutly
arj^cii that Ethiopia in Equatc^rial Africa is tlie original site of Kden.
Millions <»f Moslems Ix^lieve that the island of Ceylon was the place, and
ihey yet show the print of Adam's feet. China, Tartary, the Bahylonian
Plains. .Assyria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, .Syria, Palestine, Western and Cen-
tnil Europe, each have had their many or earnest adxocates who ha\ e
<>tablished. at least to their own satisfaction, where h.\e first lixcd. No
place on earth now answers to the deseription ^ixeii in the Hihh*. The
I'Kality, as such, long ago disappeared. And it is well for hmnanity that its
identity cinnot now be established. The interminable j)il^rinia^('s that man-
kind in every age has been making to the so-ealled holy places of earth hut
iainily show how disiistrous to the race would ha\'c been its prrser\ation.
There remain only hints in the ( Genesis narrative as to Eve's home anrl
31
EVE.
manner of life after leaving Eden. That life was long and full of pathos,
for, with the human instinct for home strong within her, she doubtless lin-
gered in the vicinity of the loved and lost Eden. And, remembering her
Creator's loving promise that her seed should recover what the deceiver
had caused her to lose, when her firstborn son Cain came to her breast,
we are told that she joyfully cried, "I have gotten a man — the Lord."
Bi:t when the second son appeared we are then told that she called him
Abel, i, ^., *' vanity." Human nature and its law of heredity existed then
as now.
And was it in human nature for Adam to have refrained from reproach-
ing her for the bitter change thit had come to them ? He was not pres-
ent when she transgressed. What wonder then, that Cain was sullen,
morose, and at length a murderer of the favorite brother? And, so it is
told, God afterward pitied while he blamed Cain, just as he had before
pitied Adam, his father, and Eve, his mother. But what a volume of family
discord and bitterness lies hid in that one word, Abel, "vanity." How
her hopes had perished !
It is recorded that Adam lived 930 years **and he begat sons and
daughters." No names of Eve's daughters are given in the Bible, and
only three of her sons are called by name. When the third son whose
name appears in the Bible was born to Eve, she called his name Seth, i. r. ,
** consolation," apparently now discerning that through this child, instead
of by her firstborn, the Messiah was to come to redeem her and regenerate
the earth.
Of the after events of her long life, of her influence over husband and
children, and the conduct of her home, no record remains, save we are told
that her firstborn son builded him "a city," from which it may be safely
concluded that this great fore-mother of mankind, of wondrous intellect
and many virtues, who had known and conversed with her Creator in Eden,
was not the gentle savage that some of her descendants imagine her to have
been, but dwelt in a home suitable to the nt-eds of her numerous household,
busy with the cares, and sorrows, and joys that ever come to the matron
with many children, and longing evermore for the coming of that better
Eden that yet awaits the earth and man.
32
SARAH, THE PRINCESS.
y^IL»-ZZ^
WIFE OF ABRAHAM, MOTHER OF THE JEWS.
f HE wife of the founder of the most remarkable of all the ancient
\ ^ religions was born in Ur, the most ancient capital town of Chaldea.
T From one of the oldest and most important of the clay tablets
recently exhumed, we learn that people in Sarah's city worshiped the
planets ; while from other sources it is learned that her father, Terah, was
the chief of the priests of Nergal (the planet Mars), and a great prince or
lord of the city, and was, according to the Koran, a son-in-law of that
mighty overlord of the land, Nimrod, who was the great grandson of
Noah.
The Bible informs us that the year Terah was seventy there was
bom to him Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This Abram was afterward
the husband of Sarah.
It will be remembered that; on a notable occasion, Abraham declared
this very relationship, saying of Sarah, *' And moreover, she is indeed my
sister, the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother, and
bhe became my wife."
Repugnant as this may be to our modern thought, it was then a very
a»mmon law or custom, not only in Chaldea, but in Egypt, and it prevailed
in cultured Athens and elsewhere in Oreecc* so late as the time of Philo,
and yet exists more or less in most polygamous countries.
In Sarah's country, polygamy was, as the tablets show, the rule
amon^ the nobles and well-to-do, women being, as in modern Turkey, an
anicle of merchandise. Fathers then bartered their daughters to whomso-
ever they chose, without regard to the daughter's wishes.
Terah was not only owner of several wives, and a prince of the land and
chief of the priests, but he was also a maker of statuary of the gods, being
the 6rst of which there is any record.
When the University of Pennsyhania's expedition recently exhumed
ancient Nippur (the Calneh of the Bible), a vast number of phallic images,
the symbols of Terah's gods, were found in the oldest of these temple ruins.
33
SARAH, THE PRIxNCESS.
Sarah was married while living at Ur, and remained in that rich, luxu-
rious, and grossly licentious city of idols, until the great change in her hus-
band's religious views forced the whole family to migrate. The Bible notes
this migration and also the previous idolatry of Terah and Abram. From
other sources we learn that Abram, while a heathen priest of Ur, and not-
ing, as was his wont, the planets in order to predict coming events, after
the manner of the ancient and modern astrologers, became convinced that
these planets were not gods, but moved in obedience to natural law. He
consequently renounced his Sabianism, which, according to the Koran,
so enraged his priestly father Terah, and the mighty despot Nim-
rod, that they persecuted him and imprisoned him for ten years. At
length they ordered him to be burned, on which last occasion he was
divinely rescued.
This led to Terah' s renouncing his idolatry, whereupon the whole
family was thrust out from their greatly profitable and hooorable position,
and fled up the Euphrates valley seven hundred miles beyond Nimrod's
dominions, and located at Haran, the Moon-god city.
This place was in those old times " a great city," and was located on
the main line of travel and commerce between Central and Western Asia.
Great caravan roads met there, and then branched out to the great fords
on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Long after it passed under the
dominion of the Roman Empire, its people spoke the ancient Chaldean
language and worshiped Chaldean gods.
Here Sarah resided for some thirty- five years, and became, as the Bible
tells, wealthy and prominent, her husband then owning ''many slaves"
and much ' ' substance. ' '
The manner of life of well-to-do women at Haran (with the exception ot
religious customs) may be seen illustrated in modern Bagdad and other
towns of the Euphrates.
At her father's death, Abram received that great call from God to leave
his "country," "kindred," and "father's house," and go "unto the
land that I will show thee," which resulted in Abram' s leaving Haran and,
with his fatherless nephew Lot, migrating to southern Palestine, while the
other members of the family remained at Haran. It may be conjectured
34
SARAH, THE PRINCESS.
that the old idolatry, with its amazing licentiousness and horrid human
sacrifices, was yet too strong for Abram even at Haran.
The sixty or more years that Sarah lived in Palestine were full of stirring
incidents, and her life now differed greatly from either that at old priestly
Ur. or at commercial Haran. As detailed in twelve chapters of Genesis
iChap. 12-24) it was now almost wholly spent in tents, her husband's life
being an almost exact duplicate of that of a modern Bedouin sheik.
Some time after the arrival in the Negib district, one of the periodical
famines of that section occurred, and they went to Egypt, where Sarah's
Inrauty attracted the attention of the Pharaoh, who, after the custom of his
kind, took her into his harem and gave Abram many presents of slaves,
camels, cattle, sheep, and draft animals, so making him "very rich in
cattle, in silver, and in gold."
On being sent out of Egypt by the Pharaoh, Sarah and her husband
lived at Hebron, while Lot chose the plain of Jordan, and finally settled at
Sodom, both that district and its people closely resembling his native Ur.
Here Lot was captured by marauding kings from Chaldea, and was rescued
by Abram and his fellow sheiks.
During this h)ng residence at Hebron, God made that memorable
covenant with Abraham, with its sanitary seal of circumcision and of
baptism.
Sarah does not appear to have shared greatly in her husband's piety,
and certainly did not possess his faith in the divine j)redictions. Because
'►f this unVx.'lief she gave him her slave-girl, Hagar, to wife, and then so
dbusetl the slave through her furious jealousy and selfishness as to make
herself appear to our modern eyes inhuman.
According to the divine promise, Sarah became the motlK-r of Isaac at
a |>eriod that then began to be accounted "old," in contrast with the
lormer great length of life. She lived to see her idolized son reach man-
h<xKl, and then, it is conjectured, died of grief and fright at the time
.Abraham's faith in the resurrection of the body prompted him to offer Isaac
in accordance with the divine command. She was buried in the historic
Cave of MachiK-lah, and has been greatly reverenced by the Jews in every
age as their great ance*stress.
35
HAOAR.
MOTHER OF ISHMAEL AND ANCESTRESS OF THE ARABS.
I RABIA, a country four times as large as France, is of peculiar inter-
est to all Bible students. No other, save little Palestine, holds so
many hallowed and impressive associations. Here Hagar lived
and died ; and here her descendants yet literally fulfill the prediction made
to her concerning her unborn babe. Here lived, and suffered, and tri-
umphed, the patriarch Job. Here Moses fled from Egypt, >and, at that
burning, unconsuming, bush, was commissioned by Jehovah to rescue his
brethren from Egyptian bondage. Here for forty years he led them, and
saw those marvelous displays of divine power and guidance. Here
Elijah found shelter from Jezebel's wrath, and Saul of Tarsus a refuge after
his conversion.
Through its northern border ran the great road from Egypt to Pales-
tine, over which Hagar had traveled as a poor slave from Egypt some years
before tlic time in which her name appears in the Bible. She was the child
of the Pharaoh by Abraham's wife Sarah, at the time the latter was an
inmate of his harem. When Sarah left Egypt for Palestine, the young girl
was taken with her, and, fearing lest the Dammesck-Eliezer should finally
be the *' possessor of my house," she proceeded after the manner of her
native Chaldea to give Hagar as wife to Abram, her lawful husband.
Hagar, whose rights and lot in those far-off times were no higher than those
of our cattlt! now, had no choice but to obey the owner's command.
In old Egypt, as in tlie present Turkish Empire, if one of the concubines
bore the sultan an heir in advance of the wife, she then became the chief
Kadin of the harem and as principal wife had authority over the others. It
was then but natural that when Hagar **savv that she had conceived, her
mistress was despised in her eyes.** In Sarah's country, however, it was
different. At that period and later, in Chaldea, the husband had absolute
power over his wives, even to the taking of their lives. Th« penal code of
Asshur relating to divorce set out that "if a husband say unto his wife
36
DKI'AKTLKK OF II.UiAK.
DEPARTURE DF HAG-AR.
.o^
RBprnducad frnm the painting of W. Hamll-
tan, R, A,, an English artist. Hamlltan studied
under Zucchi In Rditlb, and after his return to
England was elected to the Royal Academy.
He made numernus pictures far the " Shakes-
peare G-allery,"
HAGAR.
* Thou art not my wife/ he shall pay half a mina, and be free ; but i£ a
woman repudiate her husband, she shall be drowned in the river. * '
Sarah, now being unwilling to face the consequences of her own con-
duct, apf)ealed to Abram, who meekly turned his slave wife over to her
Jealous rival. The latter at once proceeded to wreak her vengeance on
,Hagar, and that, too, so ''hardly" that Hagar fled, taking the road to
Eg\'pt, 150 miles distant, with the apparent purpose to seek her own kin.
While resting at a fountain on the lonely, perilous road, the " Angel of the
Lord" called her, and advised her to return, telling her in few words the
great future of her unborn child, and describing so accurately the character
of the .Arab race, as they have been seen in all ages and as they yet are, as
to thenceforth constitute the Ishmaelite the living miracle of the world for
all time. Obedient to this divine command, Hagar returned to Abram, and
when her child was born called him Ishmael, ** God heareth," as she had
been directed.
Fourteen years later, Sarah, the free-born wife of Abram, bore him a
son, who was called Isaac.
Among the Jews, in after years, the legal age for boys was thirteen, and
the firstborn son inherited the patrimony. But under the Chaldean law
the children inherited through the mother ; the children of the free-born
wife only l)eing direct heirs, which led to the seemingly unjust distribution
of .Abram's property among his children that was made in after years, and
also to the seemingly unjust divorce of Hagar that occurred when Ishmael,
his son, was seventeen.
\Vh<n the second son, Isaac, was three years of age, his mother, Sarah,
afttr the Chaldean custom at weaning, made a feast and at this feast arrayed
him in the sacred robe which was the formal badge or symbol of the birth-
right that then constituted him the heir and head of the family or clan.
Ishmael, to whom this formal change of fortune in his father's family meant
much, "laughed derisively" at both the actors and the occasion, which so
enrai^ed the imperious Sarah that she now instantly demanded the divorce-
ment of Hagar and the disinheriting of Ishmael.
This " thing was very grievous in Ai)raiiam's sight, on account of his
son," and not until told by God to comply, did he do so. The reason for
39
HAGAR.
such direction is not given, beyond this statement, ** for in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. ' '
And now occurred that pathetic and cruel incident that has been the
subject for poets and painters for many ages ; namely, '* The casting out of
Hagar. * ' Whether her relatives in Egypt were now dead or the condi-
tions in that country such that she dared not go there, or whether she
resolved to remain in the region of the old home, cannot be known ; but it
is certain she did not take the highway to Egypt, but was wandering and
nigh unto death when found by the *' Angel of the Lord " in that arid, up-
land region in south Palestine, known as the Wilderness of Beersheba.
Being now once more providentially rescued, she afterward went, ac-
cording to the record, with her son to the plain of Paran at the foot of
Mount Sinai, where, many years later, she is said to have died. The
Mohammedans, however, who claim her, and also Abraham, as of their
faith, say she married again and lived at Medina, "and was there buried.
Her son Ishmael married an Egyptian woman, according to the Bible.
But the Arabs say he also married a daughter of Sheik Mudad, whence
sprang Adnan, the ancestor of Mohammed, the founder of the Moham-
medan religion.
. The children of Keturah, Abraham's third wife, also settled in Arabia,
as did most of Esau's descendants, and these mingled with the Ishmaelites ;
the latter, however, were the ruling or predominating element according to
Arab historians through all the ages until now.
In the sixth century of our era, Mohammed arose and succeeded in
rallying these ancient nomads under their petty chiefs, and within less than
fifty years he had planted the triumphant standards of the Crescent over the
earth, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the regions far beyond the Oxus.
The Bedouins of to-day are the lineal descendants of the prophet
Abraham by the * * Egyptian handmaid * ' Hagar. Though not so stated
in the Bible, it may be inferred that wealthy Abraham looked after the
comfort of the cast-out Hagar, for, seventy-two years later, we are told that
Ishmael, with Isaac, reverently buried their father by the side of Sarah in
the Cave of Machpelah, a statement otherwise unaccountable, unless the
son Ishmael was far more forgiving and magnanimous than his father.
40
REBEKAH.
MOTHER OF JACOB AND ESAU.
IN the marriage ceremony of the Episcopal Church are these words :
*'That as Isaac and Rebekah lived faithfully together, so these per-
sons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them
made.** Their lives stand as a shining example of domestic felicity in
ancient times.
How Isaac obtained his wife is a charming oriental love story. Abra-
ham sent his old servant back to Haran in northern Chaldea, to secure a
wife for Isaac. Parents usually provided wives for their sons without con-
sulting them. We cannot wonder that often the union was a business
transaction rather than, as in this case, a love marriage.
"Rebekah at the Well," so familiar to all, represents the toil-worn
travelers who have made the long overland journey and have halted at the
well at evening time. Rebekah comes with pitcher upon her shoulder to
draw water for the family. The old ser\ant feels that he has found a bride
for his master's son. He is entertained at the damsel's -home and makes
known his mission. Arrangements are consummated, and, with her slaves
and dowry. Rebekah leaves her home to go into the distant west to become
the wife (A the man she has never seen.
Isaac is walking alone in the field i?t evening when the caravan arrives.
He sees his future wife and loves her. He had been devoted to his mother
Sarah. She is now dead and Rebekah has his undivided aflfection.
Twin sons, Jacob and Esau, are born to thcni. Unfortunately there is
iavoritism in the family. The mother is especially devoted to Jacob, who is
•^•t a shrewd turn of mind like herself. Esau loves hunting and general out-
of-do<^^r life and is the father's favcjrite.
Rel>ekah plot^ to secure the inheritance fur Jacob, and, though she suc-
ceeds, the wrath of Esau is such that Jacob is obliged to flee, and spends
many years in exile. Not until after his mother's death does he return.
The story is replete with the peculiarities of ancient marriage.
41
MIRIAM, THE PROPHETESS.
SISTER OF MOSES AND AARON.
'TTVE first see her as a young girl beside the Nile, watching at a dis-
\f^ tance the water-tight basket among the reeds of the river, in
which her little baby brother has been placed.
When Pharaoh's daughter discovers the infant in his queer cradle,
Miriam hurries to the scene and suggests that a nurse be secured. This
meets the approval of the princess and the girl hurries away to get her
mother, who becomes the royally appointed nurse of her own babe, and so
his life is saved.
When that brother was weaned, he was taken to the royal palace and
his education in all the arts and sciences of Egypt began, and was con-
tinued for forty years. The sister who watched him in his boat cradle,
watched his career amid royalty.
Then came a change. He fled into exile, where he remained for forty
years until God called and sent him back to lead Israel out of bondage.
Regretting this great loss to his kingdom, and recovering from his awful
fright at those divine ' * wonders ' ' done in the field of Zoar, Pharaoh
gathered his legions and, pursuing, was overwhelmed as he followed them
through the divinely parted Red Sea.
When the fugitive Israelites JTave crossed the Red Sea, we see Miriam
leading the women in the antiphonal jubilee chorus.
Her j)rophetic power showed itself somewhat as in the later times of
Samuel and David — which was exhibited in poetry accompanied with
music and procession.
When Moses married a Cushite wife, Miriam took the lead with Aaron
in the complaint against him. She felt that, as an older sister, she could
not relinquish her right to some part in the control of her brother's afifairs.
As a punishment she was smitten with leprosy. This was afterward re-
moved. The affliction and the cure form the last public event in Miriam's
life. She died at Kadesh and was there buried.
42
DEBORAH.
DELIVERER OF ISRAEL AT MOUNT TABOR.
^^HE migrating hordes of Israel, in the time of Deborah, poured into
«lfe Palestine, — driving out and displacing, after the custom of those
times, the former terribly depraved and demonized people.
But their long residence in Egypt and familiarity with the licentious
worship of the gods had left its inevitable impress on these Israelites, and,
. spite of Jehovah's miraculous leadings through the wilderness for forty
years, they seemed unable to live according to the new code of pure ethics
given them.
On reaching Palestine they fell, after the '* death of Joshua and the
elders that outlived him," into that gross sexual debasement, if not also
into the demoniacal idolatry, for which God had decreed the annihilation of
ihe Canaanite people. As a result, the divine plans for them were now
changed, and ** he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about
^and they were sore distressed."
For twenty years the Canaanite king Jabin had '\mightily oppressed
the children of Israel," robbed their fields, taxed them and forced them
t'j unpaid work with his huge marauding army that inchided in its cavalry
' nine hundred chariots of iron."
**And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord," who commissioned
Deborah, the seeress, to call to arms Barak, who, with 10,000 men, as-
H:mbk'd at Mount Talx)r. But when he saw the vast army of Jabin, led i)y
its ^Teat general , .Sisera, he would have fled, had not the proj^hetess, whom
he insisted should accompany his soldiers, now ordered an immediate
charge in the midst of a furious hail storm that drove full in the face of
the enemy, by which they were thrown into a panic and completely an-
nihilated by Barak's forces, the general Sisera being killed by Jael, the
wife of Heber.
This deliverance is commemorated in the ancient Hebrew poem found
w Judges V.
43
RACHEL, THE BELOVED.
MOTHER OF JOSEPH, THE PRIME MINISTER OF EGYPT.
IFTER Jacob bargained with his brother Esau for the birthright,
obtaining it for a mess of pottage, and then gained his father's
blessing by deception, he fled, according to his mother's directions,
to Haran, her girlhood home. Esau had already married two wives out-
side the tribe, and so had forfeited his inheritance.
Jacob, at his parents' directions, seeks a wife from among their kindred
in the far east. He comes to the home of his uncle Laban, meets his cousin
Rachel, and loves her. According to the Chaldean custom, he serves
for her, as he has no property. The contract is made, and shrewd Laban
gets seven years of Jacob's time, but to the lover the time seems short.
There was a Chaldean custom of which Jacob was ignorant. Daughters
must be married in the order of their ages. At the end of the seven years
the older sister Leah was given him instead of Rachel, and he was obliged
to serve seven years more for the woman he loved.
There was a strife for maternity between these wives, and each gave
Jacob a slave wife to multiply offspring to her own account. From these
four wives came the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Sharp business practices indulged in by Jacob and his father-in-law, and
jealousy of Jacob's success, induced the latter, after secret conference with
his wives, to flee to Palestine, which, as he had become a member of his
wives' clan, was contrary to law without iheir father's consent. When
Laban returned, gathering his armed retainers, he pursued Jacob, but was
restrained from capturing him by a divine admonition, but he added to the
marriage contract of Jacob a proviso that no wives of another tribe should
be taken by Jacob.
Subsequently, as the outcome of frequent family quarrels, Rachel's
eldest son Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt, and there became the
second ruler or prime minister, and at a time of famine saved his father and
family by bringing them to Egypt.
44
THB WITCH OF KNDOR.
O 8 O t C<
THE MYSTERIOUS SORCERESS.
TT\ HE ancients were full of superstitious faith in the visits of the supernal
JL powers and their vast influence over mankind. This lay at the bot-
tom of all their religions — was their religion; and, coupled with
gross, licentious rites and practices among every ancient people, save where
the Mosaic statutes prevailed, it gave those religions that tremendous power
over man that is everywhere seen.
With them, the unfortunate dumb, deformed, or epileptic, and even the
barren woman, were controlled or cursed by demons, good or bad.
Like the moderns, they were acquainted with that as yet unexplained
d>*namic-psychic control of one human being by another that we call hyp-
notism or mesmerism, and, as an average of one person in five may be
hypnotized, there was never a lack of subjects, but with them it was solely
the doings of the *' genii " and those so affected were bewitched.
Saul doubtless read that injunction of the Mosaic statutes not to suffer a
vitch to live with them as a command not to let them live anywhere at all.
And so he had vigorously killed and driven them out. But now, forsaken
otQxi, he secretly visits at night " a woman mistress of an ol)i in Endor,"
2Uid requests her to bring up for consultation the spirit of the dead prophet
Samuel. This obi, according to the account, produced the spirit of Sam-
uel, who foretold Saul's death and that of his sons on the morrow's battle
*ith the Philistines, which took place as predicted.
Did dead Samuel really appear? The writer of the Apocryphal Book of
Ecdesiasticus, the Jewish historian Josephus, the early Christian Father
]er(>me, and others held that it was an actual occurrence. Others main-
tain that Satan or an evil spirit personated Samuel ; others that a miraculous
•nipress was upon the senses of the obi and Saul so that they actually saw
^muel ; others concluded from the words of the Septuagint that the
*oman was a ventriloquist and used the common trick of the profession to
ddude Saul.
45
NOKRITARI.
B.C. 1680?
SISTER AND WIFE OF AHMOSIS PHARAOH.
^^HE Nile valley, like the Euphrates, was one of the earliest homes of
\2/ civilization. Its great enterprises and buildings, and the millions of
' human beings who made them, lie moldered to dust in those great
graveyards of the ancient world. Their names and memorials have alike
perished, save as the spade of the explorer fortunately turns up some broken
pieces of pottery on which their scribes were wont to record their doings, or
the learned decipher their long dead languages, written on the walls of their
rock tombs or on the boundary stones of their great empires.
Their historians diligently recorded the deeds of the times, but, unfor-
tunately, all these have vanished, save here and there a fragment of the
latest.
These explorations show that, in the narrow Nile valley extending 600
miles upward from the Mediterranean, a great empire existed whose begin-
nings date back, it is supposed, to B.C. 3893, to Menes, whose tomb is said
to have been recently found in Upper Egypt.
Some six hundred years before the birth of queen Nofritari, the regions
of the Delta, with its great cities, had been occupied by Scythians from Asia,
who, by B.C. 2061, captured the country of Egypt and ruled it for 340
years, being known as Hyksos, Shepherd Kings.
Salatis, their chief, began ruling at Memphis, and constructed a military
encampment, Avaris, near Tanis, sheltering 240,000 soldiers. The native
Theban kings resisted, and for six generations they kept the country in a
perpetual warfare, desirous of tearing up Egypt by the very roots.
The Theban Ahmosis besieged the Hyksos camp with 480,000 men,
driving them out beyond Beershcba, and Ahmosis was worshiped as a god
for 800 years later.
Nofritari had six children, one of whom, Amenothis I., minor at his
father's death, became king. She reigned with him, the real ruler, some
forty years. As the great queen she was afterwards worshiped as goddess
for nine centuries. Her mummy was recently found at Deitel-Bahari.
46
HATASU OR HATSHOPSITU.
B. C. 1690?
FAMOUS EGYPTIAN QUEEN, BUILDER, AND EXPLORER.
{ \) CELEBRATED queen of Egypt and the eldest daughter of Ahmasi
X\ and Sonisonbu. According to Professor Maspero, her father gave
her to wife when young to her junior brother, known in history as
Thotmosis IL, but she being of solar, /. e., *»' divine " birth, and thus
higher than her husband, was the real ruler of Egypt, and sought to con-
ceal her sex by changing the termination of her name, and appearing on all
public occasions in male attire. On the Theban monuments she appears
as male, with false chin beard, and minus breasts, but with her feminine
pronoun, and claiming to be the betrothed of the god Amon.
Her husband died at thirty, leaving two daughters by Hatasu and a son
by a slave Isis. This son, Hatasu proclaimed as her successor and married
her sur\'iving daughter to him. He appears in history as Thotmosis III.
Her reign was prosperous, as appears by the great buildings she caused
to be erected, by her famous architect Sanmut, throughout the province of
Thebes. One of those immense obelisks is yet standing among the ruins
'>^ Karnak.
The monuments give an account of her expedition lo the unknown land
of Perfumes for a cargo of perfumes for the gods ; and of the wonder
Mcited at Thebes on the return from the long voyage to the Somali coast.
She is represented as reigning eight years after this memorable expedi-
tion, and as opening the Sinai mines, and the canals in the Delta that had,
h^^use of the previous long continued wars, been silled up.
She was averse to war and so lost nearly all that her father had con-
n^ereil in Syria ; nevertheless she developed Egypt as but few before her
had done. She resolutely kept the reins of government in lier own hands
loni^' after her son-in-law had come of age, dying when Thotmosis III. was
t»eniy-five years old : he revenged himself by seeking lo destroy the very
^^embrance of her from the earth.
A richly car\'ed chair belonging to this great cjueen was found in one of
the royal tombs of Egypt recently.
4<
QUKEN Til.
B. C. 1500?
QUEEN MOTHER OF AMENOTHES IV.
J^ECAME wife of Amenothes III. in the tenth year of his reign, being
j[2r ^"^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ wives. She was not of the blood of the Pharaohs,
her father being one Iiiia and her mother Tiiia.
Hincks supposes that she was a Syrian of the tribe of Levi and that her
influence brought about that strange revolution in the religion of Egypt
seen during her lifetime and that of her son Amenothes IV\, who is now
known as Khu-en-aten or Khuniaton.
Her husband gave her the town Zau as dowry and raised her above his
other princess wives and concubines, even those of the "solar rank," to be
the Queen of the Empire, and permitted her to appear at his side at pubHc
ceremonies, and on the monuments.
She had vast influence over him, and busied herself greatly in all afifairs
of state, and after her husband's death, while not officially known as regent,
she exercised that power during her lifetime under the reign of her son,
giving that strange oriental impress to her son's religious policy that then
appears on the monuments.
She is supposed to have been born near Heliopolis, that ancient seat of
the sun (Ra) worship, where under its priests Plato studied, and where tra-
dition says Joseph and Mary stayed when in Egypt. The place is called
**the abode of the sun," and known as On in the Bible. The High
Priest's daughter, Asenath, the Pharaoh gave Joseph to wife.
In the Tel-el- Amarna correspondence, Tii is called "Thy mother,"
/. ^. , of Amenothes 1\^.
During her life the power of the great hierarchy of the god Amon at
Thebes was temporarily overthrown, and a new religious cult, that of
Antonu, the invisible disk, prevailed.
Her son builded an immense palace and temple and a town devoted to
this form of sun worship whose ruins have recently yielded those celebrated
tablets known as the Tel-el- Amarna correspondence, that confirm in so
many points the historic accuracy of Genesis.
48
THERMUTHIS FINDING MDSES.
ReprDducBd froni the painting by Schnpin, a
German painter of French extraction. His works
are principally historical pictures, At one time
Schcpi:: was a pupil of Baron Bros.
IS
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THERMUTHIS.
B. C. 1600.
PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER, FOSTER MOTHER OF MOSES.
FNCIENT Thebes, on both sides of the Nile for over fifteen miles, con-
tains remains of once gigantic buildings erected by Egypt's greatest
king, Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greek historians.
His mummified body was discovered at Thebes in 1881, and may now
be seen in the museum at Gizeh.
When M. Naville unearthed Pithom, one of the treasure cities built by
the Israelite slaves, the niins showed him to have been the great oppressor,
who by their labor constructed those immense cities, temples, canals, and
frontier walls, that were the astonishment of after ages.
Whether she who adopted Moses was Rameses' daughter, or daughter
of his brother, Armais, who occupied the throne as regent while the great
Rameses with his army of 600,000 foot soldiers, 24,000 cavalry, and 27,000
war chariots, was for nine years conquering the surrounding nations, cannot
now be told.
But through her, Moses "was skilled in all the wisdom of Kgypi."
As elsewhere told, learning was wholly confined to the priests, of whom the
king was head ; these great schools were connected with the temples, and,
at timtrs, had thousands of students. In them were taught such ancient
vkLMiom as that found in chapter 64 of the Book of Dead, hooks and forms
«•? devotion ; hymns to and of the gods ; war and lo\e souths : moral and
:.hil*JSOphical treatises : letter writing ; h-j;al documents : mathematics,
.i-m»nomy, and military tactics ; astrology and mechcine : sur\eying, nui-
-«:«:al composition, and business in general.
M«>st of our prizeil fables and folklore have come (uit of Mgypt's
-^ h'K»ls, which <iid not hesitate to appropriate whatever of ancient or con-
:rmp<'>rar\' knowledge the stranger might bring.
According to Josephus, Moses became the commanding otticer of the
rigyptian army, and defeated the Kthiopiaus in a noted cam|)aiun. captiu'ed
their capital Meroe, and married the Ethiopian king's daughter.
51
HELEN OK TROY.
B. C. 1S18.
CAUSE OF THE TEN YEARS' SIEGE OF TROY.
-M$*4l-t^
YHER E is lack of agreement as to the parentage of Helen of Troy,
but she was generally represented as the daughter of Jupiter and
Leda, who was wife of King Tyndareus.
When Helen was but ten years of age she was carried of! by Theseus,
who made his mother the keeper of his captive.
Helen had two famous brothers, Castor and Pollux, who came to her
rescue, and in turn carried away Theseus' mother as Helen's slave.
Having returned to her home she was sought by many noted men ;
among them, the Homeric hero, Ulysses. She finally accepted Menelaus
as her husband.
Paris, the son of Priam, King of Troy, was entertained by Menelaus,
and basely repaid the hospitality by carrying ofl Helen to his home in
Troy, but, as it would seem, not against her will. The Greek princes,
many of whom had been her suitors, vowed to restore her to her husband
and the result was the Trojan war.
Paris was killed during the siege, and Helen married his brother, but
when Troy was taken she betrayed him into the hands of the enemy to win
favor with her former husband, Menelaus. She received his forgiveness.
There are various stories of her death. One is that, after the death of
Menelaus, she fled to the Island of Rhodes, where the queen of the island,
whose husband had been killed in the Trojan war, caused her to be seized,
tied to a tree and strangled.
The Spartans counted her a goddess and dedicated a temple to her
name. It was supposed that women worshipers at this temple, however
homely, would become beautiful.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey give vivid pictures of the social life, man-
ners, customs, religion, and government of the Greeks and the condition of
women in the davs of Helen. Among later poets the tales of Helen are
much complicated, and her character often sufiFers severely at their hands.
52
SEMIRAMIS.
B.C. 1200?
QUEEN OF ASSYRIA, BUILDER OF BABYLON.
BOR nearly two thousand years Nineveh, the ancient Babylon, was
lost to the world. Ancient history was full of its fame, yet so com-
plete was its ruin that Herodotus, B.C. 460, passing over its site,
did not even know it. Sixty years later Xenophon and his 10,000 on that
iamous retreat from Persia did not hnd so much as its name.
Lucian. B.C. 137, affirms that it had so utterly perished that its very
site was unknown. For 1500 years men doubted its existence, and until
about fifty years ago the Bedouin fed his flocks over it all unmindful of the
tact that scores of feet beneath lay the great palaces of the most famous city
of ancient, if not of all, time ; a city whose area was ten times that of London
oil«)-(iay. But the huge statues, obelisks, monuments, marble slabs, exca-
vatttl hy Layard, and now in the Assyrian room of the British Museum,
^vc abundantly confirmed the classic stories of the amazing greatness of
thbcity toundi'd by Ninus and his greater spouse, Semiramis.
Stmiramis was first the wife of his captain, ( )nnes, but won the king's
'"Vfbvan hi-roic exploit, the capture of Bactria, which had dertcd the royal
^Tci-s. Ninus died, and Semiramis, succeeding to his i)o\\t:r, traversed all
;»art> of the Assyrian empire, erecting great cities, particularly Babylon.
•»r»d stupendous monuments, or opening road^ through savage mountains,
•''ntuas unsuccessful only in an attack on India. At length, after a reign
'•forty-two years, she delivered up the kingdom to her son Xinyas, and
'disappeared : or, according to what seems to be the original form of the
>*'^'r\. was turned into a dove and thenceforth worsniped as a deity.
This is the k*gend which the (ireeks received irom Ctesias, and which is
^v preserved by Diodorus, though it has been modified by traits borrowed
•r'^-m the history of .Alexander the ( ireat.
<'»n the statue of the god Nebo in the British Museum occurs the name
'•f King Vul-Lush and his queen Semiramis, a princess of Babylon.
53
JEPHTHAH'S DAUGHTER.
B. C. 1188?
VICTIM OF A FATHER'S FOOLISH VOW.
(Jj\OR hundreds of years after the Israelites settled in Palestine they were
-L governed by men called Judges (an elective office) who interpreted
and enforced the Mosaic statutes, and whose position was somewhat like
the Greek " Kphors " or Roman "Consuls," and whose office seemed to
have been a life one, but was not hereditary.
In the intervals between these judges, the people seem immediately to
have adopted the customs and idolatry of their neighbors, and as a punish-
ment fell under the rule of the nomad chiefs or petty kings surrounding
them.
Jephthah was such a nomad chief who had been expelled from among the
Israelites because of his birth. ¥ot eighteen years the Israelites had been
subject to the oppressive rule of the Philistines and Ammonites, and they
now entreated the aid of Jephthah, promising him their rulership if he would
lead their army in attempt to gain independence.
He consented, and made, after the custom of his time, a vow to sacri-
fice, as a burnt offering in case of victory, whatsoever should first meet him
on his return to his own house. This proved to be his daughter, and it is
recorded that, after the two months of delay she asked for, " he did with
her according to his vow."
Human sacrifices were then common. Was his daughter burned alive?
Probably not, for these reasons : Jephthah was not an idolater ; it was
forbidden as an abomination by his Mosaic law ; only the priests could offer
sacrifices ; only the Levite could take the victim's life ; he was neither.
Only a male \ ictim could be offered ; burnt sacrifices could only then be
offered at Shiloh ; there the high priest, Phineas, would not have allowed
it : redemption could havr l)een secured l)y paying a small sum ; his con-
duct is conunended in Heb. ix: 32, which would be atrocious if he had
burned her. The word he used was ne'-der, "consecration," not che-
run, "destruction." The probabilities are that she was only condemned to
a life of celibacy, which event the women of that time celebrated yearly.
54
SAMSDNANn DELILAH.
ReproducBd frnm a picture by the cBlehratBd
Van Eyck, "w/hn "for nnbls use nf calnr, ElegaiicB,
and style ranks as one of ths first paintars." Van
Eyck was barn at Antwerp, and studiad under
Rubens. In pcrtraitura ha was unsurpassed.
Among his many works ara, " Portrait of Charles
I.," " Tha P.nyal Family," " MlraculDr:S Draught
of FlshBS," and " Christ Lrownad with Thorns."
^'^ /\^^
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DELILAH.
B. r. 1187?
PHILISTINE COURTESAN — BETRAYER OF SAMSON.
'«^— *—■ ^ -
(J^OR twenty years Samson had been the leader of his people against
£* the sore oppression of the Philistines. He was a Nazarite by birth,
and at manhood married a PhiHstine woman, against whose clan his
uralh was chiefly directed. He was simply irresistible : new ropes, a
thousand men, city gates with bolts and bars, were of no avail against him.
But he had with his physical strength an ungoverned animal nature.
Fur a time he broke through every snare laid for him. He became
tnamored of Delilah. The lords of the Philistines inchiced her to entice
him to reveal the secret of his strength. They offered, as a reward, to
c-ach give her eleven hundred pieces of silver.
Samson, in lying jest, told her that if she were to bind him with green
withes he would be powerless. This was tried and found to be false. He
then proposed being bound with new ropes, which proved equally futile.
He next told her to weave the seven locks of his hair with the web of the
l'X)m. This she did, and when she cried '' The Philistines are upon thee "
hi- awoke and carried off loom, web and all.
The Ixiftled courtesan now complained that he did not lo\ e her. Over-
'''»mt at last by her complaining and coaxing, Ik* revealed the secret of his
^a/arite v<.»w. She cut his locks and he was ea])ture(l by the Philistines.
His enemies put out his eyes, bound him with fetters of brass, and
^»a<le him grind in the i)rison house, while Delilah, like all of her kind,
protiu'd by ht-r treachery and no doubt mocke(l her \ ictini.
There is a sad irony in his fate of beinii made blind. The eyes which
l"oked nn depraved beauty and led to his fall were destroyed.
At a great festival in honor of their ^od Hagon, blind Samson was
•'roiight forth to be gh)ried over at the innnense temple, then holding thoii-
MHils «»f people*. Hen-, asking ( iod t«> ri >tore hi> ^treni^th, he pulled
'l^'wn two main piihirs, wrecking the building and perished with the thou-
Mnds of idolatrous onlookers.
The story is relati'd in the book of Judges, chapters xiv-xvi.
RUTH THE GLEANER.
B. C. 1120?
THE MOABITE ANCESTRESS OF KING DAVID.
^^HE present Turkish district of Kerah, bordering some forty miles on
\[y the east of the Dead Sea, and now almost wholly a wilderness over
' which the wild Bedouins roam, was once a densely populated and
wealthy country as the extraordinary number of ruins scattered over it
show.
The lowland part of the district south of the Arnon was Ruth's home.
A famine caused by incessant Midianite raids prevailed in South Palestine,
and Klimelech of Bethlehem, with his family, crossed the Jordan into Moab,
and Mahlon, one of his sons, married the Ruth of the Bible.
Ten years later Elimelech and his sons being dead, Naomi, his widow,
hearing that Gideon had destroyed the Midianite robbers, and her home-
land was now prosperous, resolved to return to Bethlehem, and took leave
of her daughter-in-law. But Ruth now refused to be parted from Naomi,
and together they reached Bethlehem " at the beginning of th^ barley har-
vest," their arrival causing a deal of excitement in the little hamlet.
After the custom of the poor, Ruth at once went into the fields to glean
after the reapers, * ' and her hap was to light on the portion of the field
belonging unto Boaz, who was of the family (clan) of Elimelech — a mighty
man of wealth.
In the Biblical book of Ruth, finest of all pastoral narratives, is given
the thoroughly oriental courtship of the widow Ruth, and the ancient
device adopted by Boaz, who stood only in the relation of a goe/ to Ruth
(one having privilege only of redeeming an inheritance ) and not that of a
/evir (one whose duty according to Mosaic law it was to redeem), to
induce the near kinsman to renounce his rights to the widow that he might
take her. The kinsman, on learning that he must take the widow as an
incumbrance on the estate, refused the inheritance, whereupon Boaz mar-
ried her and she became the mother of Obed, the grandfather of David,
King of Israel.
68
HANNAH.
B. C. 1116?
MOTHER OF SAMUEL THE PROPHET.
YHROUGHOUT all the ancient world, motherhood was the aim and
ambition of all married women. A numerous offspring was the
goal of those ancient worthies. If a wife was childless, her lot was
indeed a hard one ; for if she bore no children, she alone was blamed and,
il not then divorced, another wife was added to the household and the
childless one's life made bitter.
Hannah's life was embittered by the taunts of the woman who shared
the husband's name with her, and which was but little mitigated by the
fact that she was the best beloved wife.
The ancients also held that barrenness was due not to physical causes
hut to the su|>ernal powers.
And so it is recorded that at the great annual religious festival at
ShJoh, Hannah prayed earnestly to "the Lord of hosts" for offspring,
consecrating such, if granted her, to the service of God as priest. In
answer to her prayer, Samuel, the great prophet-priest of Israel, was born
t«'her.
When he was three years old he was weaned and in ac rord with her
vow Hannah presented him at Shiloh to VA'i, the high priest, and thereafter
"the child did minister unto the Lord before Kli the priest/' The mother
VNtwi him each year bringing a little coat upon which she had i>cstowed
months of loving skill.
When Kli's prie^st sons were slain because of their lew(hi«*ss, roi)l^ery,
^nd oppression, and the father died of grief thereat, Sanuiel became the
priestly ruler of the people, and under his j^overninent Israel had such
r*ace and prosperity as had not i)een hitherto known by them.
When he became too old and feel)l(.- longer to tra\(l as judge among
the pe»»ple, he appointed his three sons to the ot"fu<\ who, unfortunately,
"walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bril^jes and
p^Aertetl judgment," and the ine\itable c onse(juences soon came, the de-
>tructit»n of the government.
QUEEN OF SHEBA.
». C. 1004?
THE ROYAL GUEST OF KING SOLOMON.
■ - - - - .}e;;-H-H^.
HEBA was the name of the great South Arabian kingdom. Sol-
omon's fame for wisdom and wealth had reached that kingdom.
The queen of the South no doubt thought it would be politic to
keep on good terms with this rapidly rising power. There was also a
curiosity to verify the stories of his wisdom and regal splendor.
She prepared her royal caravan and started on her thousand mile jour-
ney. Solomon was accustomed to royal gifts from surrounding nations
but the camels laden with the choicest of spices from the land of spices,
surprised even the king. ' ' There came no more such abundance of spices
as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon," and the hun-
dred and twenty talents of gold, over fifteen millions of dollars, was a gift
that the wealthiest of kings could not ignore.
We may presume that Solomon and his people had not held the people
of Arabia in high esteem. They had neither the history nor the deeds of
Egypt and the far East to boast of. But they had gold mines, which made
that metal an abundant commodity. The coming of that caravan to
Jerusalem gave the peoi)le a new estimate* of that great south land.
The Queen of Sheba i)rouglit surprises and found more. Day after
day she listened lo vSolonion's words, putting to him hard questions in
philosophy and religion, especially seeking information concerning the God
of the Jews. She gazed on the splendid architecture of palace and temple,
and at last was led to exclaim, " It was a true report that I heard in mine
own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the
words until 1 came and mine eyes had seen it ; and behold the half was
not told me ! "
Then follows a noble acknowledgment of the source of vSolomon's great-
ness which he so soon forgot.
" Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee, to set thee on
the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore
made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.*'
00
ABIQAIL.
B. C. 1060?
WIFE OF NABAL. THE BEAUTIFUL PEACEMAKER.
{-^K-i
r^ABAL was a wealthy sheepmaster, pasturing his four thousand ani-
lY mals on the southern slopes of Carmel.
^ David having fled from the jealous and insane king Saul, gathered
about him a band of debtors and malcontents to the number of six hundred.
Once a year the sheepmaster and his men held a great banquet at the time
o\ sheep shearing. David's men, at one of their encampments, had pro-
tected the shepherds and flocks of Nabal, instead of making depredations ;
and, at sheep shearing time, partly requested, partly demanded, a gift as
iood for themselves and their outlaw band. Nabal peremptorily refused,
and. in so doing, placed himself at the mercy of David and his men.
Nabal' s men perceived the danger, but did not dare approach him ; so
they told Abigail, his wife; who, it is said, was of "good understanding
and of a beautiful countenance. ' '
With offerings of bread, wine, grain, raisins, figs, and dressed sheep,
^^c. with her attendants, liastened down to David's encampment. And
n«'netoo scmui. Four hundred men, fully armed, were on the way to exter-
ininate Nabal and his men. Her womanly tact and beauty softened the
fit^artof David, and the little army turned l^ack.
When >he reached home Nabal was in the midst of revelry, too drunk
'^f'know or care al)out the danger. When he was told next (hiy how near
ne had been to death, the shock was so great that he died from the effects
of it,
Ahigail was summoned to the camp of David, and became his wife.
Prom h<.-ing an outlaw chieftain, he became king after th(.- death of Saul,
i^duiih him Abigail shared the honors of royalty. One son, Chileah, was
^'m to them.
Her pn>mptitude, courage, and tact are womanly virtues which we
^^imire. She was, unfortunately, obliged to submit to a division of David's
afiections with his other wives.
61
B. C. 917?
THE IDOLATROUS AND TYRANNICAL QUEEN.
-^>— )K-<^
ER ancestors, the Phoenicians, were the inventive and commercial
Yankees of the ancient world and emigrated, according to Herod-
otus, from the Euphrates valley, near the Persian Gulf, to Pales-
tint-, settling, according to tradition, in the vicinity of the Dead Sea.
When that region was shaken and sunken by an earthquake, such as
escaped fled to the Mediterranean coast, and founded Sidon, Tyre, and
Byblus, and planted a colony in Ireland as early as the days of Abraham.
Jezebel's father, Ethbaal, was first priest of Baal-Melkarth at Tyre and
afterwards the prince or king of Tyre. The temple of this god at Tyre
was so splendid and so rich in offerings and magnificent in ceremoniak,
vestments, and pageants, as to astonish the much traveled Herodotus.
Tyrians were devotees of Astarte (the C^reek Aphrodite), goddess of
love, who demanded at her annual festivals the gift of virgins in the sacred
groves. They also worshiped great Moloch, to whom, at times, awful
human sacrifices were made.
Jezebel became the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, and made her husband
more renowned for wickedness " than all the kings of Israel that were be-
fore him." Ahai> sank himself and the people in the grossest forms of
the idolatrv of liis wife's native country, though in all probability he did
not intend to abolish the worship of Jehovah.
She ruled Ahab with an iron will ; and did not hesitate at cold blooded
murder to accomplish her ends, notably in securing Naboth's vineyard by
causing the owner to be slain. At her table were supported no less than
four hundred and tifly priests of Haal and four hundred of Astarte.
It was from her wrath that the prophet Elijah fled after the slaughter of
her priests at Carmel. Years afterwards, when Jehu entered Jerusalem,
Jezebel was trampled under his horses' feet and her remains cast upon the
city refuse heap. Later, relenting, Jehu ordered that she be buried, saying,
"(io and take this cursed woman and bury her. For be she what she
may, she was at least a king's daughter."
PRINCESS DIDO.
About B. C. 869?
FOUNDER OF CARTHAGE, ROMPS GREAT RIVAL.
5-^K-J
ER husband, Acerbas (who was also her uncle), was priest of Baal-
Melchar (the Greek Hercules) at Tyre, and was murdered by
Dido's brother, the king Pygmalion of Tyre, for a cause. Dido
iWreupon gathered a company of disaflfected nobles of Tyre, and sailed first
10 the Islands of Cyprus, and later to North Africa opposite Sicily, where
they bought of the natives as much land as a bull's hide would cover, and
tricked the natives by cutting the hide into strips, so inclosing enough
land on which to build Carthage.
They were wonderfully enterprising and the city became the greatest
commercial emporium of its time, outrivaling the other great ancient cities
o( the Semite peoples, Sidon, Tyre, and Thebes.
The prophet Ezekiel's description of the wealth and greatness of the
nioiher city, Tyre, but faintly portrays that of Carthage, whose ships were
^^ lar^'est of the world, trading with all parts of the known earth, and
<^xploring and colonizing distant, hitherto unknown lands.
It was governed by nobles called " suffetes," corresponding to the
judgt-s" of the Israelites, the form of government being very similar to
^"<^ Spartan, save that the rich only had voice in it.
h> army was composed, not of citizens, to whom such ser\ice was
^*l>Tading < they Ixjing merchants and rulers only ), but of mercenary troops
otticere<l by Carthaginians. Several of these generals were ainc)iig the very
^rcate^t the world has ever known.
Because <»f this military defect, Carthage was at last overcome i)y its
K^tat rival, Rome, towards the end of those three hundred years of com-
f^trdal and military struggle for the world's supremacy, it being captured
*ith awful carnage and burned by the Romans at the end of the third Punic
*^. B. C. 146. The Romans unfortunately destroyed all its historic
ftcords.
Their religion and customs were sensual, revolting, and fearfully cruel ;
^d often involved the offering of human sacrifices.
63
JUDITH.
B. C. 609?
SLAYER OF THE ASSYRIAN GENERAL HOLOFERNBS.
/ I \HE little state of Palestine was the only available highway between
JL those two great ancient empires, Egypt and Assyria, and was a con-
stant prey to the cupidity or revenge of both.
In the early ages the Hittite peoples of Syria served as a buffer between
them, but after their rule was destroyed it was inevitable that Palestine
should suffer from the armies of those great, ambitious, warring nations who
now swept its treasure and people into their countries to build and adorn
their great cities.
Sennacherib, it is recorded, employed 360,000 captives in enlarging and
beautifying wonderful Nineveh, which, within two years, he boasted he had
made ** as splendid as the sun."
An enormous booty and 200,000 captives were taken from Hezekiah
(king of Judah), and forty-six of his cities in one campaign ; and seventy-
nine cities, eight hundred towns, over 200,000 captives, and immense wealth
from the Babylonian states in another.
With the fall of Nineveh the great, B.C. 625, under the joint forces of
the Medes, and that traitorous viceroy of Babylon, Nabopolassar, the latter
became king of Babylon, his son Nebuchadnezzar (afterwards the great
builder of Babylon) being for years at the head of his armies. During this
reign of Nabopolassar it is supposed the event of Judith occurred.
The mighty king, after conquering the Persians, resolved to punish the
people of Palestine, Syria, and Phoenicia for refusing to aid him in the war
against Persia, and to this end sent an army into Palestine under command
of Holof ernes, who laid siege to Bethulia in Samaria. In order to rescue
the famished inhabitants, a rich widow named Judith entered the Assyrian
camp under pretext of being a deserter, and willing to betray Bethulia to
them. Judith was taken into the tent of Holofcrnes, who was enraptured
by her great beauty, intellectual gifts, and piety. At a banquet in his tent,
given to Judith, he became drunken, when she beheaded him, thus causing
the defeat of his army.
64
SAPPHO.
B. C. 600.
THE GREATEST POETESS OF GREECE.
yj HIS famous poetess, estimated by many as the greatest poetess the
\Jj ^ world has ever seen, was a native of the Island of Lesbos, and
T probably was born and lived at Mytilene. At Lesbos she was
the center of a brilliant society and head of a great poetic school, for
poetry in that age and place was cultivated as assiduously and* apparently
as successfully by women as by men. The names of two of her rivals are
prtser\ed — Andromeda and Gorgo.
In antiquity the fame of Sappho rivaled that of Homer. She was
called "the poetess," as he was called '* the poet." Different writers
style her *'the tenth muse," "the flower of the Graces," "a miracle,"
"the beautiful," the last epithet referring to her writings, not her person,
which is said to have been small and dark. She is said to have sung her
poems to the Mixo-Lydian mode, which she herself invented.
The few remains which have come down to us amply testify to the
>tice of the praises lavished upon Sappho by the ancients. The perfec-
tK'n and finish of every line, the correspondence of sense and sound, the
<^>mmand over all the most delicate resources of verse, and the requisite
symmetry of the complete odes, raise her into the very first rank of tech-
nical |>oetry at oner, while her direct and fervent painting of passion has
ne\erlK*en surpassed. Her fragments also bear witness to a profound {{^e\-
^i^U*r the beauty of nature ; we know from other sources that she had a
[•et-uliar delight in flowers, and especially in the rose.
The ancients also attributed to her a considerable powtr in satire, but
4.r excelled in the [)6etry of passion.
The(ireek comic poets were fond of introducing her into their dramas
^'^ a courtesan : but later writers now maintain that she was a pure woman.
.According to Suidas, she was married t(^ Ctrcolas of .Andros and had a
'^ughler Cleis. Because of the Draconian times she fled to Sicily, but
aiten*ards returned to Lesbos, where she died.
65
ESTHER.
1
B. C. 468?
THE "LILY OF SHUSHAN," QUEEN OF PERSIA.
ESTHER, a beautiful Jewish maiden, the heroine of the Biblical book
that bears her name, was the daughter of Abihail, a Benjamite, and
uncle of Mordecai. Her proper Hebrew name was Hadassah, but
on her introduction into the royal harem she received the Persian name of
Esther.
Her parents being dead, Esther was brought up as a daughter by her
cousin Mordecai, who had an office in the court or household of the Persian
monarch, "at Shushan, in the palace."
The reigning king of Persia, Ahasuerus, having divorced his queen,
Vashti, because she properly refused to comply with his drunken com-
mands, search was made throughout the empire for the most beautiful
maiden to be her successor. Those whom the officers of the harem deemed
the most beautiful were removed thither, the eventual choice among them
remaining with the king himself. The choice fell on Esther, who found
favor in his eyes, and was advanced to a station enviable only by com-
parison with that of the less favored inmates of the royal harem.
The king, however, was not aware of her race and parentage ; and so
with the careless profusion of a sensual despot, upon representations made
to him that the Jews were a pernicious race,, he gave his prime minister,
Haman, full power and authority to kill them all, young and old, women
and children, and take possession of all their property.
The circumstance that Esther herself, though queen, seemed to be
included in the doom of extirpation, enabled her to turn the royal indigna-
tion upon Haman, whose resentment against Mordecai had led him to
obtain from the king this monstrous edict. The laws of the empire would
not allow the king to recall a decree once uttered ; but the Jews were
authorized to stand on their defense ; and this, with the known change in
the intentions of the court, averted the worst consequences of the decree.
The Jews established a yearly feast, the Purim, in memory of this deliv-
erance, which is observed to this day.
66
LUCRETIA.
•©♦o
RepraducBd from the painting by C Falma,
an artist of the "yenetian schonl, distinguish ed for
the freshness of his coloring. Falma devoted
man/ years to the study of the works of Titian,
Michael Angelo, and Raphael, and ■was much
influBiiced by those great masters, "The Last
Judgment," "Perseus and Anrircrnsda," and the
" Marriage of St, Catherine" are amung his best
known works.
^tJV2^
LLCkiyriA.
LUCRETIA.
K. r. ftio.
THE VICTIM OF THE HATED TARQUIN-
f$) UCRETI A is celebrated as much for her virtue as for her beaut\'.
^^ The stor>- ;is told by Roman historians recites, in brief, that Lucius
Tarquinius usurped the kingdom of Rome by bloody deeds, ruling
like the Greek tyrants. His nephew, L. Tarquinius Collatimus, prince of
CoUatia, had married the daughter of S. Lucretius Triciptimus, a lady of
^reat beauty, chastity, and domestic virtues.
During the siege of Ardea at which were her husband, father, and the
two sons of Tarquin, one of the sons, Sextus, and a kinsman of her hus-
band, abused the hospit.ility of her home by entering at night her bed-
chamber with a drawn sword, and by threatening ncjt only to kill her, but
10 further scandalize her by cutting the throat of one of her slaves so as to
incriminate both in the eyes of her husband, he compelled her to yield.
On the morrow, sending hastily for father and husband and telling
them of the facts* and making them swear to banish the hated tyrants, she
plunged a d^;ger into her heart and died. The body was carrit'd to the
market place, where Junius Hrutus pulled the* da^^cr from htr lnvasl and
recounted the outrage to the multitude, and demanded the expulsion of the
Tarquins. On the news reaching the army, the tyrant and his sons were
left to their fate, and shortly afterward the Roman re|)ul)lie was organized.
B«tii«r eontinaed.
The character of Esther, as she appears in the Bi!)le, is that of a woman
• if deep piety, faith, courage, patriotism, and caution, (N)mhini(l with reso-
lution : a dutiful daughter to her adoptivi- father, dociU'. and (»lK(iient to
his counsels, and anxious to share the kinj^'s favor with him fnr the i^ood
• •I the Je\^i^h people. That she was a \irtuons woman, an<l. as far .is lur
situation made it possible, a good wif<' to the king, her e()ntiniie<l intluenee
over him f<ir so long a time warrants us t^ infer.
The \asi foundations of Xerxes' j)ala('e aX Shu-^han. "The Lily." yet
Terrain, u !)»re tii«; humble Jewish maiden rose to be cjueen over a mighty
empire:.
CO
AS PAS I A.
B. C. 470?— 410?
THE LEARNED COURTESAN OF ATHENS.
PSPASIA, daughter of Axiochus, was born at Miletus in Asia Minor
and removed to Athens when young, becoming, it is said, the leader
of the courtesan class.
Among the Greeks, girls were carefully secluded, save at the public
festivals and dances, and no woman appeared on the streets except the
sellers of bread and flowers, and the puNic women.
The laws of marriage in (j recce were very severe with women, but ver\'
lax with men, so that at times marriage was at a great discount because of
male dissoluteness, and the class of courtesans was large.
In Athens marriage with foreign women was illegal, and the children of
such were illegitimate.
No people on earth were so enamored of mere physical beauty as the
Greeks, and none were so gifted with it. At all festivals and public pro-
cessions the most beautihil women were foremost. Public prizes were
given to the handsomest women and men. At Segasta, a temple was built
and sacrifices were otTered t<> her who took the prize for beauty.
lulucation was cultivated by this class of public women, and Aspasia
was greatly celebrated for her beauty, talent, elocpience, and knowledge of
the politics of the times. Her hou^e became the resort of many of the
noted men of the age, who were attracted by her many charms of person
and mind.
The innnortal Socrates was a fretjuent caller, and that great ruler of
Athens. Pericles, was so captixated that he divorced his wife, by whom he
had two sons, in order to live with Aspasia. A son, l*ericlc*s, was born to
them, who was legitimatized by })opular decrie and became a noted
general.
Aspasia was accused of inducing free women to become courtesans, but
after a tearful defense by PtTicles, was accpiitted. She is said to have com-
posed much of the great oration of Poricles over the Athenians who fell iu
battle, B. C. 430.
70
XANTIPPE.
B. C. 480?
THE TYPICAL SCOLD, WIFE OF SOCRATES.
fl i\OR twenty-seven years the Greeks, whom Xerxes' army of millions
J- could not conquer, had been zealously at work as was their wont, in
ferociously killing each other in those civil conflicts known as the Pelopon-
nesian wars ; and at last Athens (founded B. C. 1556) was conquered and
its walls demolished, and the liberties of Greece went out in darkness under
the reign of the Thirty and the Ten Tyrants. It was at this period that
Socrates, greatest spirit of all the pagan world, fell a victim to the super-
stition of his time, accused of neglecting worship of the gods, introducing
new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens ; and B. C. 399, this loftiest
genius of the ancients, who had brought more wisdom into the storehouse of
ages than has any other philosopher, came to his death at the hands of Envy.
His wife has j)assed into history as the typical scold. Yet it must be
confessed that few women could have endured with patience the life of
abject poverty he chose to live,* and the trials to which he subjected her.
Fur. as an opponent truthfully said to him, ** A slave whose master made
him live as you do would run away."
Wfunen among the Greeks, while perhaps better treated than elsewhere,
wtTC yet slaves. Being asked by Alcibiades how he could live with such a
'A'»nKin, Socrates is said to have rei)lied, " She exercises my patience, and
t-nal)k> me to bear with all the injustice I experience from others." It is
ITMUihic, however, that Xantippe's faults have been much exaggerated.
'"^"^ rates e\ idently entertained a sincere regard for her, and gave her credit
•"rnianv domestic virtues.
^'*P««itA continued.
After the death of Pericles, Aspasia lived with and greatly advanced the
'^Ttiines of Lysicles, a noted cattle dealer. Hy her instructions she raised
^'ini to a prominent [)lace in the state. This episode is somewhat obscure,
^pnrially as Lysicles seems to have fallen in battle in 428.
Much of the glory of the administration of Pericles has been ascribed to
her el(»quent instruction and political sagacity.
71
ARTEMISIA.
B.C.3ffO?
QUEEN OF CARIA; CONQUEROR OF RHODES.
eARIA was a small mountainous Greek kingdom on the Mediter-
ranean coast of what is now Turkey in Asia, having the kingdom
of Phrygia on the east, and Lydia on the north. The chief towns
were Miletus, Halicarnassus, and Cnidus ; principal river the Meander.
The Greeks were the most individualized people in the world, incon-
stant, fickle, delighting in suits at law, arguments, and disputes, and seldom
able to agree. Their chief cities, at this time ruled by tyrants, were almost
perpetually at strife with each other, and often in bloody wars.
Artemisia was the sister and, after the ancient customs, became the wife
of Mausolus, king of Caria, who died B. C. 352, the widow surviving him
two years.
She is chiefly known to history for the conquest of the Island of
Rhodes, afterwards the greatest seat of learning in the world, and then
celebrated and wealthy. She built a monument to commemorate the event,
which the Rhodians, wIumi they gained their liberty again, rebuilt so as to
make it inaccessible. Her excessive grief over her brother-husband* s death
is also noteworthy. She is said to have mingled his funeral ashes with her
wine ; and built for him, at Halicarnassus, a tomb (she dying before it was
finished; so costly and grand as t(^ be considered one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world, and from which our modern word Mausoleum comes.
Ruins of the tomb yet remain. She employed the most celebrated Greek
orators to pronounce orations to his honor, giving prizes to the most suc-
cessful, and is said to have died of grief for him.
Alexander the Great, wlien Darius was assassinated, B. C. 330, estab-
lished the Grecian ICmpIre on the ruins of the overthrown empire of Persia,
that had continued two hundred and six years. Seven years later Alex-
ander died at Babylon and his vast empire was divided. But during all
the Greek predominance, the common woman's condition was but little im-
proved. She was secluded, not taught housekeeping until marriage, and
was afterwards a tlrudge. (^f rights she had none.
CORNELIA.
B.C. 108?
MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI.
/ I ^HIS famous Roman lady lived in the days of the Roman Republic —
-L a hollow mockery for a state — that existed for five hundred years,
and was in reality a government by an aristocracy, at first one of birth ;
later, of wealth, selfishness, and lust. Slavery was the foundation and
oligarchy the structure, and within it was full of unspeakable cruelties and
crimes.
By birth Cornelia was of the very highest patrician class, her father
being the P. Scipio Africanus who had destroyed Carthage, and her
mother, Amelia, the daughter of the L. ^milius Paulus, who perished at
the battle of Cannae.
She was married to T. Sempronius Gracchus, of a plebeian family of
wealth, renowned for their acts and sympathies with the great multitudes of
the city*s suffering poor. Twelve children were born to her, three only
reaching adult age.
She was highly educated in the Latin and Greek literature, was pre-
tmintnl for virtue and gravity of character, and a central figure in Roman
^KkXy during her husband's lifetime and after. Her house was the resort
ot ihe high minded, noble, and learned of Rome.
Her daughter Sempronia married the younger Africanus, her two sons
^)tin^ those famous Gracchi, Tiberius and Cains, i)()th eminent soldiers and
tribunes. The former sought when tribune to aid the poor by amendment
"^land laws and urged that the immense wealth Attilus, king of Perganios,
^3(1 left to Rome be distributed among them. At election for tribune,
*iberius and hundreds of his followers were killed in riots instigated by
^^ patricians. Ten years later, Caius, for seeking to reform the govern-
^«it in the interests of the poor, employing them in building roads and
^ther public works, was set upon in a similar riot and perished at the hand
^^ his slave. The Romans afterward repenting, put upon the motlu-r's
toml). ''Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi."
7f
OCT AVI A.
B. C. 70?-ll.
THE WRONGED WIFE OF MARC ANTONY.
X^ ER father was the Roman Praetor, Caius Octavius, and the family one
MLf of great patrician distinction. One of her brothers became the
^ Emperor Augustus after the rotten Republic had slid again into
monarchy.
In the days of Julius Caesar she was married to his bitter enemy,
C. Marcellus, and Caesar later greatly desired her to divorce her husband
and marry Pompey, but she refused. Her husband died three years after
Caesar's assassination, and then, to prevent if possible the civil war that was
brewing between her brother Octavius and Antony, she was induced to
marry Antony immediately after the death of Marcellus.
The historians report her to have been a woman of very high character
and many accomplishments, and for a time she kept the dissolute Antony
with her, inasmuch as she was a far more beautiful woman in person than
the courtesan Cleopatra. But his affection for his wife was not strong
enough to counterbalance the feelings that weighed against it.
After Antony's unsuccessful Parthian campaign slie went with troops
and money to meet him at Athens. But he, now that Cleopatra was with
him, refused to see her, and bade her return to Rome. Sending the troops
and money to him she returned to his house at Rome overwhelmed with
grief at his infatuation for the Egyptian queen, and thereafter devoted
herself to the education of her children, she having had three by her first
husband, Marcellus, and two daughters by Antony. From these daughters
descended, it is said, the emperors Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.
Even after Antony had so cruelly and unjustly divorced her, she con-
tinued to educate his son by Fulvia, along with her own children ; and after
his and Cleopatra's shameful death she took Antony's children by Cleo-
patra, protecting and educating them as if they had been her own.
She is known as the " Patient Grizel of the ancient world," and died, it
has been supposed, of grief at her misfortunes, when in her fifty-fourth
year. She was buried with the highest honors in Rome.
•74
IVTARIAIVINK.
B. C. 37 ?
HEROD'S WIFE AND VICTIM.
MARIAMNE was of the Jewish Asmonean line, and was accounted the
most beautiful princess of her time. She was betrothed to Herod
the Great, and married to him at Samaria, B.C. 41, Herod leaving
his siege of Jerusalem for that purpose.
She was of proud spirit, boastful of her Maccabean ancestry, and of
strong temper, and the king's harem was, according to Josephus, anything
W a pleasant place, owing to the ill-will existing between Mariamne and
htr mother, Alexandrine, and Herod's mother, Cypros, and his sister,
Salome, the latter women being taunted by her at times with their less
nol)le birth. She persuaded Herod to depose Ananel from the high priest-
h«KKl, and appoint her young brother, Aristobulus, which brother was
purposely drowned by his order at a swimming bout, the following year.
Antony having oversight of Rome's eastern dominions, and Mariamne
reporting this to Cleopatra, Herod was summoned to Laodicea to explain,
ancl!)<»ueht the good will of Antony.
H(T«»d, who loved Marianme with a wild, insane passion, gave orders to
^ve her killed in case Antony ordered his death so as to i)revent her from
tallin'^r inir, Antony's power, and was upbraided by her on the return.
Herod's mother and sister now accused her of adultery with Josephus,
sn'l the hirious FleTod killed Josephus, and imprisoned Marianme' s mother.
After Antony's overthrow at Actium, Herod went to Rhodes to inter-
cede with Octavius for having been Antony's partisan. Before j4c>ing he
^^ilied Marianme' s grandfather, and shut her up in |)rison with her mother,
'ta\ing orders with the officers, Soemus and Josephus, to kill them if he did
r*'t return. This also became known to them.
A year latrr .Salome falsely accused her of attempting to poison Herod,
^y torturing her chamberlain, Herod discovered the story's falsity, but
learned that the officers had told of his last purpose, and put them to death.
Mariamne, em his sister's now further falsehood of her adultery, and through
*H<- constant urging: of Salome and his mother, was also put to death.
'^5
CLEOPATRA.
B.C.69?— B.C.30.
THE BRILLIANT EGYPTIAN QUEEN.
/ I \HIS last queen of ancient Egypt was the third and eldest surviv
JL daughter of Ptolemy Antites, of Egj'pt's Greek line of kings, i
was horn B.C. 69, at Alexandria, Egypt, and died there Aug
30, B.C. 30.
When she was seventeen, her father died, and by the terms of his 1
she was to be joint ruler of the Eg>'ptian dominions, with her yount
brother Ptolemy, who was to be her husband.
Cleopatra was brilliant, beautiful, self-willed, and educated in Greek i
six other lanjjuages, and the nobles, finding they could not use her to th
enrichment, and led by Ptolemy's guardian, Pothinus, and Achilles, cc
mander oi the anny, expelled her from the cit\'. Collecting an army fr
the dependencies t)f Arabia and Palestine, she advanced to battle for
rights, when Julius Cies;ir, who had just overthrown Pompey at Pharsa
and was pursuing the fleeing Pompey to Eg\-pt, appeared on the see
and, finding Pompey had l>een assassinated at Pelusium, came to Alex
dria as arbitrator.
I'nable to gain Caesar's notice, she had herself smuggled into his pi
ence in a roll of car^>et carrieil by her slaves, which, being unrolled,
great C:es;ir was captivateil by her charms, and espoused her cat
Ptolemy was killed in a battle i>n the Nile near Memphis, and Cleopatra y
given her Vinrngtst brother, then eleven years old, as a husband by Cae
Within a few weeks after C;es;ir left to suppress a revolt in Armei
Clei>patra hor^- him a son, Ciesarion. The next year, B.C. 46, with 1
son .\m\ her brother-husbiind, she went with Ca*s;u' to Rome, and lived i
palace luar the Tiber as his wife, to the great disgust t>f aristocratic Ron
not that Rinnans were purer than Cleopatra, but she was a foreigner, wl:
was v^all arul \\i»nn\\i.H>d to the blue-bUKxl profligates oi Rome.
Here Cvis^ir put her statue in a temple built to \'enus. But his as:
sinativMi in B. C. 44 com pelleil her to return to Egypt. Two years h
the battle of Phars^ilia put the Triumvirate in pK>wer and Marc Antony '
TO
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
— ©♦© —
ReprDducBd frnni the painting by Eustav
WerthBimBr, an Austrian artist, and a specialist
in history and ganra painting. " The Waves'
Kiss," " Shipwreck af Agrippina," "Fisherman's
Dream," and the "King's Breakfast" are other
examples of his work.
"f^JVS^
CLEOPATRA.
allotted the government of the East, and established a brilhant court at
Tarsus. Ck»opatra not appearing among the great throng of f>otentates
that flocked to do him honor, he sent an ambassador and then letters, beg-
Knnji her to visit him. When the brother-husband came of age he was
conveniently put out of the way by poison.
Gcopatra was now twenty-eight, in the fullness of her Greek beauty,
and when she sailed up the Cydnus in that gorgeous Oriental manner so
strikinjjly depicted by Shakespeare, Antony became at once her enamored
islaveand followed her to Alexandria, where the winter of B. C. 40-41 was
s^fK-nt in wild revelry of every kind, the couple claiming to be the gods
Osiris and Isis.
Antony's wife, Fulvia, now sought to compel his return by inciting a
*ar in Italy. Her forces were defeated and she fled to Athens, where
Antony met her. I'pon his return from Rome, however, he left Fulvia at
Siac^n. where she died of rage and grief at his neglect.
A reconciliation was now obtained by friends of the two Triumvirs,
Antony and ^)ctavius, by which the latter' s recendy widowed sister,
< ^ctavLi, iKi-ame Antony's wife and for two winters he lived with her at
Athens. CleojKitn* meanwhile was furious with rage and jealousy.
Aninnv then went to Syria, warring against the Parthians, and sent for
n»i,jvitra. who met him at Laodicea and went with him to the Kuphrates,
^'\i*i\ thf return he went with her to Egypt.
Th». nt\t year he con'jiKred Armenia and returning to Alexandria pro-
' iiinetl a " triumph *' for Cleopatra as the ''(jueen of kings," making her
^■•- ^'V Ca-rvir hgitimati-, and his offspring by Cleopatra possessors of rich
•^' ■■i.in pn.\inct.-s.
Alter divorcing Dctavia, he spent the year B. C. 33 in revelries with
'-'"t'^ra .it Kphesus, .Samos, and Athens.
R"m<- nt»w (Itclared war against Cleopatra and the armies met at
•^■^uim. \vli«Te .^he j)ersuaded Antony to tight with the naval forces instead
''*h-land tpM.p-^ and in the mid^t of the battle turned the scale against
■-' f'V tl.f ing with sixty ships. Antony learned during the battle that she
''•i^ifiMJ. and flung away half the world to follow her, leaving his forces t(»
*'^T:<n(ier to Octavius.
79
CLEOPATRA.
The winter was spent with her at Alexandria in wildest excesses,
the spring Octavius appeared at Alexandria, and Antony was defeat
Cleopatra seeking to buy her safety by offering to betray Antony.
She now fled to the immense mausoleum she had constructed. Anto
hearing that she was dead, mortally wounded himself, then, learning
was alive, had himself carried to the tomb, where Cleopatra and her i
slaves, with much labor, raised him to their upper chamber, and he die(
her arms.
Octavius by artifice captured her in her tomb and she .was brought
fore him. Failing to entice him and seeing that she was destined fo
Roman "triumph," she caused her woman slaves, Iris and Charmain
array her in her royal robes and crown, and then placed an asp in
bosom that a countryman had smuggled to her in a basket of figs, ;
died, in her twenty-ninth year ; her women followed her example i
guards of Octavius found them all dead.
And so old Egypt's long line of kings and queens forever passed aw
With her ended the dynasty of the Ptolemies and Egypt became a Ron^
province.
The portrait of Cleopatra on her coins is that of a woman of intelk
rather than of beauty. A broad head, with wavy hair, an aquiline no
large deep-set eyes, and a full eloquent mouth, is supported by a long sl<
der throat. To these personal qualities she added a mind singularly cu
vated and resourceful.
She had three children by Antony.
80
WOMAN
BEKORK THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
FROM EDEN TO CHRIST.
^n7HE Bible is the very oldest and the only consecutive history of early
®|fe mankind that is known. The oldest of the exhumed historic an-
nals of Chaldea or of Egypt, of India or of China, are but the
debris of history — the mere dust of long vanished records, with no present
coherence and with little reliability. Gods and demi-gods are the burden
of their themes. For well-nigh three thousand years of
Bitoic human history, the Bible bears its own unattested and yet
uncontradicted story of the origin of mankind and of the
doings of a few men. Is its story reliable? If not, man has no certain
records of his beginning and his early years. It does not enter into the
purpose of this present work to discuss that question. We proceed upon
the assumption that the Biblical story is historic and reliable. A witness
whose testimony has been invariably corroborated by those to whom any
knowledge of like character is possible, may safely be believed when he
tfsiihes concerning things of which he alone has knowledge. Such a wit-
ness is the Bible.
The Bible is the only ancient historic book that teaches the creation of
the world. In the fragments of other ancient annals that are known to
^itn, there arc to be found accounts of the beginnings of earthly things,
^^ut always from previously existent matter ; and those who suppose the
'biblical narrative to have been derived from Chaldean or any other creation
9'<^s would do well to study and compare them. Such study can only
f^ult in the conviction that the Genesis account stands unique, alone, and
und(Ti\ed from any yet known human source, or sources.
The present writer also holds that the first woman was not one of the
^^hfcanthropoids — ape-like women — of Professor Haeckel's twenty-first
-^geoi evolution, but was a direct creation of Deity as stated in the Genesis
''^ord, and we therefore seek by it to know what was the condition of
*oman in those far-of! ages.
81
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
There was much of human history in those old-world times, for there
were great events. But of them, the barest hints only remain to us. For
instance, seventy verses (Genesis iv to vi: 12), more than half of which con-
sists of names and ages of the chieftains of the antediluvian peoples, tell all
that historians know of man during a period probably as great, if not hun-
dreds of years greater, than has elapsed from the birth of Christ until now.
Yet how much of human history has been crowded into our nineteen cen-
turies of the Christian Era ! How many volumes it takes to even faintly
tell it ! But those seventy verses are absolutely the only records left us of
twenty centuries of human life. And then, too, for nearly a thousand
years. longer, men must continue to go to this ancient book — the Bible —
for any certain records that are left them of theh* kind.
Certain incidental statements appear in those old brief Bible chronicles,
that shed more or less light upon the condition of woman. For example,
we are told that the first son of the first woman the world
^w^oman ^^'^^ knew, " builded a city and called the name of the city
after the name of his son Enoch," and that he was also a far-
mer or " tiller of the ground." Hence we infer that his mother, the first
woman, could not have been that gentle savage of our modern wise men,
who, they tell us, was wont, stone hammer in hand, to go bone hunting for
marrow. Nor did this first woman live in tents. Not until hundreds of
years later, in the seventh generation from Eve, do we meet with one Jabal,
who is said to have been the father, /. c. , founder, of that style of life, he
being a herder or cattle raiser.
These records also inform us that during the lifetime of the first wo-
man, Eve, musical notes and harmony were known, the herder's brother,
Jubal, being ''the father of all such as handle the harp and
primeirai ^,.or^,^ " Mining and forging were also known in those
civilization ^ .s .^ f>
days, Tubal-Cain l^eing " the forger of every cutting instru-
ment of brass and iron." Even the fine arts, as poetry, were in use,
Lamech's speech to his wives being the oldest fragment of poetr>' known.
And in this poetic chieftain, Lamech, of the- fifth generation from
Adam, we meet with the first polygamist of the world ; a departure from
the previous condition of woman so radical, that the names of his wives
*82
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
an* reconk-d : they, tojjelhcr with Kve and one other (Tubal-Cain's sister),
beinjj the only names of women preserved in the Bible for the first twenty
centuries. This frantic jKx.^tic appeal of Lamech to his wives for just ifica-
ti«»n se«-ms to contain a romance, as well as to recite a tragedy. Did
Lamech ro\) that ** younj^ man " of a sweetheart or a wife?
It further appears from this ancient chronicle, that the husband of the
first woman possessed much knowledge of animal life and gave names
descriptiv*' of their naturcfs to the whole animal world, and doubtless im-
parted this knowledge to others also, for Noah, of the tenth generation
from Adam, was thoroughly posted as to what were "clean" and ** un-
clean " animals and birds.
Adam and the antediluvian peoples were able to distinguish " seed -bear-
ing herl>s " and also every "tree in which is a seed-bearing fruit," and
'• fvery gn-en herb" of non-poisonous kinds; a necessity for them to
know, as mankind were then vegetarians.
It would also seem that they were accjuainted with minerals, for **gold"
and "precious stones" were then known. It is therefore safe to assimie
that woman in those ancient ages had both the comforts of life and some of
its luxuries.
It cannot now Ix* known hr)w much (»f the earth was then occupied by
man. Tht- pri-sent Malay people within K^s than five hundred years have
xiie ^*J>read along two hundred degrers of latitude, from Kaster
Ancient Island to Madagascar, and, within a less j)erio(l than that em-
^^^'' braced in the antediluvian tinu*s, half the contint-nt of Africa
hiiN In-tn jKoplfd by a race whose various tribes ditTer in sjnech no more
than d«» High and Low derman : while the .American Indians have shifted
thtir homt-s tw(» thous;uid miU»s away from wlurr Columbus found them in
A.I>. 1492. The Norsemen sailed to Iceland, (ireinland, and New Eng-
l.ind. in litth- l>oats not so seaworthy as ihosr of the native Polynesians.
L«»ng iM-fon- R«»me was f<»imded. ihr C'hincsr knrw the magnet and the
m.irinir's comp.'iss. made junks, and went to sea in them, touching our
Pacific' co.i>t.s generations before the NorMincn reached New Kngland.
Why then shouUl it be thought improbable that the antedihn ians navigated
the M.MS and |K-ople<l the earth, during those two th(»usimd years before the
83
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
Flood? Boats were not unknown to them, as appears from Noah's ready
and skillful construction of the Ark, and mankind were all of one speech ;
a great aid to travel.
In this primeval age here being considered, the race was probably as
prolific as now. The first woman. Eve, it is recorded, had **sons and daugh-
ters** born to her other than those whose names appear in the Genesis ;
while tradition assigns to that first polygamist, Lamech, no less than sev-
enty-seven children. In those ancient ages men lived eight and nine hun-
dred years, a condition that admitted of a numerous progeny and a vast
experience of life.
This great longevity seems to have been a natural consequence of the
physical condition of the earth at that time, and it is described in the
Bible. It will be recalled that not until after the Flood does the rainbow
appear, and then it is put in the cloud as a token of the new covenant with
Noah and his posterity, a seeming absurdity if the sun had ever been
observed shining on falling drops of water prior to the Flood, for the rain-
bow would then have often appeared.
Again, it is stated that, at the creation, God made ** a firmament in the
midst of the waters ' ' thereby ' ' dividing the waters which were under the
firmament from the waters which were above the firmament," this firma-
ment being what we now call the air, which is as truly a fluid as water.
Further, at the end of fitting up the world for man, just prior to the
creation of Adam, we are told that " the Lord God had not caused it to
rain upon the earth " — but " there went up a mist from the
queou ^^j^ii and watered the whole face of the ijround." The writer
therefore concludes the meaning to be, that the world during
antediluvian times was surrounded by an aqueous cloud belt, resembling in
appearance those belts now to be seen around the planet Jupiter, or Venus,
or Saturn, as they are viewed through telescopes from our earth. This
belt shut off the chemical, atomic, or ener\ating rays of the sun, thus keep-
ing the climatic conditions throughout all the world wondrously conduciv^e
to a great length of life. Such conditions would allow no ice caps at the
poles, as we now have them ; and accounts for those buried forests of
palms, magnolias, cypresses, and other tropical trees, now to be found as
84
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
far north as Upemavik, Greenland, and in other of the Arctic regions.
Finally the belt was broken up and fell on the earth in the days of Noah,
being those * ' windows of heaven ' ' that were * * opened, ' ' and constitutes a
reasonable explanation for many otherwise inexplicable mysteries.
It is staled that there grew up amid this great length of human life in
ihe antediluvian world, and possibly then because of it, very grave evils
that particularly affected woman. That period was, according to the testi-
mony of Jesus Christ and the Apostles Jude and Peter, particularly charac-
terized by extreme license in the gratification of the bodily appetites,
through gluttony or high living and gross licentiousness.
The prophet Enoch, we are told, in the seventh generation, mightily
exhorted against it, and warned the people of a coming judgment because
of it. Some four hundred years later that evil rose to enormous propor-
tions, and the governors or rulers of the people were unable to suppress it.
Soon a new form of the evil arose, so fierce and terrible that the memory
of it survived for ages after the Flood. This culminated in such deeds of
violence upon women, and such a corruption of the race of
_^ men, that in the reign of the governor and prophet Noah the
human race was destroyed by a deluge of waters, Noah only
and his family being saved in the Ark that he had built under divine direc-
^i'^>n, and Ix^cause of a warning that had been given him of this coming
^^^nt. This warning, our Lord and his apostles say, was given by him to
^h*^ world, but all in vain. The Hood came and swept twenty centuries of
humanity from the earth.
Authorities are not agreed as to either the date when the Deluge
^^'urrwl, or as to the time from it to the call of Abraham. The Scptuagint
^reek ) version of the Old Testament assigns 2262 years from the creation
^'' Adam lo the Flood of Noah. The Masoretic Hebrew, 1656 years, and
^^^' Samaritan Pentateuch, 1307 years ; while Josephiis gives 2256 years as
^^t number.
It is recorded that Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the
Flood. But, according to the Biblical records, the old time
obvious, however, is tl
85
longevity henceforth rapidly shortened. The one fact that is
obvious, however, is that the plains of Shinar, in the Euphrates
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
valley, became the first habitation of postdiluvian man. Here their first
cities were builded. Here they began building that vast historic Tower of
Babel. Here occurred the " Confusion of Tongues," and thence men were
scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. Kurds and Turkomans now
dwell in mijerable, dirty villages, in this waste and desolate land, which
once was the richest part of the earth, and the only land where wheat grew
wild ; where crops yielded two hundred and often three hundred fold, and
two and three harvests a year were gathered ; where pastures were so rich,
even in historic times, that cattle had often to be driven from them lest
they become too fat for use.
In this region Herodotus traveled and expressed his astonishment at the
hundred or more great cities he saw, while Babylon, once the "glory of
story ^^^ kingdoms," presided over them all. All is now ruins.
of ttie Of the hundred or more visible mounds covering the sites of
* * * once mighty cities and temples, scarce a half dozen have yet
been exhumed. But from these have been taken thousands of burnt clay
tablets, cylinders, images, and fragments, telhng of a once great civilization
that flourished here for three thousand years. Those people made arches,
tunnels, aqueducts, canals, drains ; used the mechanical lever and roller ;
manufactured glass and made lenses of it ; engraved gems ; practiced inlay-
ing, overlaying, and enameling of metals ; made jars, dishes, vases, ivory
and bronze ornaments ; were weavers, manufacturers of all sorts ; architects
and builders ; had earrings, bells, and jewels of elegant forms ; wrote poems,
annals, hymns, and magic incantations, at a time that history knows not.
What was woman's condition then ? The ancient tablets show us some-
what of it, but the later empire more.
The early cities were of winding, narrow, muddy streets, littered with
kitchen refuse and offal of beasts and men, where packs of dogs and ravens
cities ^vere the scavengers. There were crowded, noisy bazaars,
and each trade in its own lane or blind alley. The houses of the
Housen pii(^i(il^. an(^i lower classes were huts of reeds and puddled clay,
or else were low, crude brick structures, with a conical dome on top.
There were gloomy brick walls inclosing silent, almost desolate spaces,
where the rich dwelt in palaces and gardens carefully screened frorti the gaze
86
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
<»i the vulgar herd; while towering over all was the temple — palace of
thtgod, with its ziggurat and painted or gilt sanctuary. The palaces of the
rich were lighted by small holes in the upper part of the walls ; rooms were
small, oblong affairs, a few only used for living purposes, the others being
J^torc chambers for household treasures and provisions ; the furniture of
living rooms, mainly chairs and stools like those pictured on Egyptian
monuments : bedrooms contained chests, for linen and coverings, the beds,
mainly mats on the floor with a wooden head rest, almost the picture of
th()>e now used by the Galla people in Africa (whom some suj)pose to be
ihtir descendants), those ancient women putting their hair up like the
Gallas in huge erections that require such head rests ; in the corner of the
courtyard an oven, and near it the millstones for grinding the grain, ashes
aglow on thi! hearth always, or near at hand the fire-stick, pots of earthen-
uare, watt-r and wine jars, heavy plates, knives, scrapers, and mall heads of
Hint, bronze axes and hammers, and wicker baskets, great and small. In
later Empire times the houses had flat roofs such as may now l)e seen in
Bagdad, and other Euphrates towns, where the women spent most of their
time, morning and evening, gossiping or story-telling or perchance in small
houbeuork, till driven below by the heat of the day.
Till* well-to-do had several wive^s, who dwelt in a harem, which, if the
tablets do not belie, was the place of endless cjuarrels and intrigues.
PoAiti These, while supplied with the luxuries of the time in food
ortiie and dress, were j)racticallv slaxes, ^oing out only to visit a
* female friend, or relative, or to the frecjuent festivals at the
^•niple. when they were attended by a crowd of slaxes, eunuchs, and
l^'t-^. who carefully shut out the world to them.
Women (»f the middle and lower classes spent their lives in endless toil
''•r husband and children. Night and morning they ( arried water from
^^•'- i>ublie well, or river : they ground the corn, made bread, spun, wove,
niadc garments for the household, went bareheaded and barrfoot to market,
'^faring the loin cloth only, or else a long draped garment of wool of
^ir>- texture.
Maternity was the begiiming and the sole vm\ of woman's existence,
^d she might be repudiated by a word from her lordly husl)and. If she
87
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
was sterile, she was often divorced for it, unless the marriage contract had
specified she should not be. (Under the later new Chaldean Empire, the
divorced wife might demand the amount of the dowry the bride had always
to bring to her husband. And if she owned property in her own right be-
fore marriage, it remained hers independently of her husband, to be used
as she pleased. )
If the wife was a scold or disobedient, the husband might sell her as a
slave. If she miscarried or was permanently barren, she was believed to
be possessed by an evil spirit and was a dangerous person, and accursed,
and so was often banished from the family.
So hard was the lot of woman in those old days, that girl babies were
often thrown into the river or left at cross roads, if possible to excite the
pity of passers-by, or to be devoured by vultures.
Childless couples, to avoid the stigma of childlessness, were wont to
adopt these foundlings, or others, in order to have children to supf)ort
them or inherit their property. Newly born infants were
ctilidren shown to reliable witnc*sses, then marked on the soles of their
feet to insure identity to the parents. It was a misdemeanor
in parents to disown a child, unless for cause, and they were shut up in
their house so long as they persisted in it.
If a son said to his father, "Thou art not my father," the father
marked him by a conspicuous sign and sold him as a slave in the public
market. If he .said thus to his mother, he was similarly branded and led
through the street, or along the road, with hooting and clamor and driven
out of the city or province.
The rich owned many slaves of both sexes, while the middle classes
owned but two or three at a time. These were captives taken in war, as
was Lot, or in the almost constant raids made on peaceful
suiires settlements by petty chieftains, to replenish their treasury'.
Slaves were counted by the law as cattle only, and the
owner's will was as absolute over them as over his flocks or trees. He
could shackle them, whip them mercilessly, or take their lives. Male
slaves sold for from ten shekels of silver by weight, to a third of a mina ;
females for four and a half shekels. Female slaves counted it as great
88
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
honor to be taken as wife by the master, who could treat them as he would.
Slaves married among themselves and their offspring went to the master.
Occasionally a slave was allowed by the master to purchase his freedom,
rarely was it ever given him. At times, if apt at trade, the master set him
up in business, allowing him some of the profits. If a slave became free he
could marr\' sometimes in the middle class. Workmen taught their own
trades to their children.
Originally the middle and lower classes seemed to have owned their
own homes, but often they fell into the hands of the usurers, who were wont
10 ask twenty and twenty-five per cent, interest on loans, and when they
had to rent the houses, the rates were very high.
Gold, silver, and copper were in use as money, but it was not coined,
or e\en cut in rings or twisted in wire, as in Egypt, at this early date of
which we now speak, but was exchanged by weight, silver being very gen-
erally the preferable money.
The commerce of the cities was almost wholly carried on at, and in, the
temples. As in Egypt, so in Chaldea, the priest stood next to the king.
The king was par excellence the head of the priesthood —
ti«oo«i ^^^ representative of the Planetary god among men. But
he had under him a body of priests, some of whose offices
«crc here<litar\-. and some he selected to perforin for him the multitudinous
'iaily siicerdotal functions. At the head of these was the high, priest or
i>hshaku, whose chief duty was to pour out the libations to the gods, and
t<»j)rt*>ide over various orders of under priests and priestesses, such as the
"Muj^utu" class, who had charge of the harem of the god ; the " kipu "
•^n<i "shatammu," who managed the finances of the temple (then as
•il ways afterward a most important class), while the *' pashoshus" anointed
^»ith holy. p<^-rfumed oil, the god's statues of stone, or metal, or wood,
that were always clothed with vestments and adorned with jewels ; they
^l'^) anointed the holy vessels, basins, i)owls, etc., used in the ritual ablu-
t><'ns, and also the victims to be sacrificed, both of beasts and, on great
occasions, the human sacrifices.
There were also connected with the temj)le service, the official butchers,
augers, soothsayers, prophets, record keepers, and, not least, several
89
WOMAN IN THE ANTKDILUVIAN WORLD.
classes of holy courtesans who honored the god by offering themselves sex-
ually to whoever would put in their hand the usual piece of money. .
Almost every hour there was a fresh sacrifice or ceremony of some sort,
additional to the regular morning and evening sacrifice's. These priests
also manufactured the money of the land in their temples,
claiming the gold and silver as "sacred" and the gift of the
Xcmplc . . .
gods to their great priest, the king. They likewise con-
ducted commercial transactions at the temples and took charge of estates
or moneys ; were intermediaries between borrowers and lenders for a good
commission, the interest rate being from twenty to twenty- five per cent,
per annum in old Chaldea.
They had gifts of fields, flocks, and slaves come to them by will when
the worshipers died (or, mayhap, while they yet lived), in order to appease
the god or to gain his favor.
To maintain these vast establishments for this Planetary worship, there
was, further, an annual sulwidy granted to the temples from the state treas-
ury, such as gifts of beasts, l)irds, fish, liquors, bread, incense, gold, silver,
copper (moneys always by weight), gems, precious woods, and, after a suc-
cessful raid or war, always their tithes (legally a tenth, under later Empire
times the bulk) of spoils were taken, especially slaves and herds.
V^ast areas of cultivated lands were given to the temples, of which the
priests cultivated a part, the rest were rented or else farmed by their hosts
of slaves, which included gardeners and laborers of all sorts.
Very many, too, of the articles in daily use by the people, as well as the
luxuries of life, were produced in factories owned by the temples and under
the direction of these holy (?) men of the gods ; who likewise added to
their revenues by maintaining, in connection with the worship of the gods,
troops of women singers, and the wailers for the dead, and the sacred
prostitutes.
So debasing was this worship of the planets upon the w^omen of this
first settlement and kingdom of men after the Flood, as it is now revealed
to us by their literature, that the public prostitution of every
Planetary ^vq,^,^^ \^y j^ j^ast one act, became obligatory by law, a
worship . 1
thing that continued for centuries thereafter, as is witnessed
90
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
by the ttrstimony of Herodotus as late as B. C. 500, who was a personal
oilier ver of the things he then speaks of as existinjj in the pahiiiest days of
Babylon.
This same low estate of woman was found in Palestine in this period
and even a lower depth. All through the Old Testament times is seen this
s.ime great debasement of women. The "groves" and "high places"
against which the later prophets of Jehovah thundered their anathemas,
were hut the resorts of abandoned women whose sins constituted the wor-
ship, and long after the last prophet (Maiachi) had denounced this yet
existint^ degradation of woman, the Apochryphal Book of Baruch speaks of
this siime old Chaldean custom as then prevailing.
There are those who complain of the severity of Moses and carp at his
statutes, but they were the only media that preserved the chastity of
«oman and made it possible for the Christ to be born of mankind.
It is imjK)ssible to comprehend or even faintly know the condition of
»oman in those early ages, apart from this religion that then was the all to
mankind.
In Egypt, that other early settled part of the earth, this same form of
idolatr)- of the solar system originally prevailed, but with some important
modifications. There also, as in old Chaldea, the king was
Etjrpt the chief pontitT, and in addition to the several classes of
priests, the Hood Papyrus takes up half of the second |)age
^ith the titles of temple S(;r\'ants and artisans, men and women, such as
■ •ut. her>. cooks, pastry cooks, confectioners, cellarers, water carriers, milk
am«T>. florists, weavers, shoemakers, etc.. all waxing fat on the supersti-
lj'>n..f the times.
In Kj^ypt, also, the priests solicited and had (according to the monu-
ments dn(\ inscriptions) vast gifts of houses, fields, \ ineyards, orchards,
tbh jH»nd>. slaves, silver, gold, copper, etc., large legacies being left to
thtm l.y the worshipers to institute prayers and sacrifices in behalf of the
'kad.
While not so keen tradesmen as their Chaldean brethren, like them the
^-Kyptian priesthood through their chief, the king, claimed the "sacred
^t'tals " and made it in their temj)les, fixing the ratios as pleased them, and
91
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
these also became rich and powerful and able at times to dictate terms even
to the king on his. throne ; many even becoming king.
Here also, even down to the time of the Caesars, were to be found those
Pallacides, of whose remarkable tombs Strabo and Diodorus speak. These
were the sacred harlots, being girls belonging to the families of nobles at
Thebes who were consecrated to a life of immorality in the service of the
god Ammon.
And as the gods, among whom was the much worshiped and praised
Osiris, had married their sisters, so it was the constant custom in Egypt,
through all its history, for brothers to marry sisters (in Egyptian love songs
the words brother and sister mean only our modern lover and mistress).
Indeed, some of their kings, as Psammetichus I, and Rameses II. (the
Pharaoh of the Israelite oppression), following the example of their illus-
trious gods, married their own daughters. The Achaemidian kings did the
same and Artaxerxes, king of Persia, also married two of his own daughters.
Later discoveries have shown that Diodorus was mistaken in thinking
that women were supreme in Egypt, the custom that he refers to of the
husband visiting at the separate homes of his polygamous wives and being,
while there, treated as a guest, having given him that idea. It is now
known that the position of woman in ancient Egypt was almost identical
with that prevailing in Ciialdea. If the wife was by birth the sister of her
husband, or was of the same rank or caste, she had more of independence
granted her.
But the will of the husband was supreme. The rich and the nobles had
several wives, who dwelt apart, each in her own house, where the wife
Husband received the visits of her lord, and ground the corn,
and cooked, wove, and made clothing and perfumes, kept the
'^^^^ fire alive, and nursed and taught her children, just as her
sisters did in the Euphrates valley.
The chief or noble had also, besides wives, concubines, who were either
slaves born in his households, bought with money of the poorer classes,
or captives of war. These were his chattels, and at his disposal, being often
sold, even though they had borne him children.
All his children were legitimate in the law of Egypt, but not all of the
92
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
same rank : those of the sister or wife of his own rank having preference
over those of the concubine, unless the latter had brought him a firstborn
son.
The homes of the common people were identical with those of the fellah
of to-day, viz. , low huts of wattle, daubed with puddled clay, or else of sun-
dried brick, of one room, a door being the only opening.
Those of the middle class were large enough at times to even require
a roof supported by trunks or limbs of a tree for columns.
The furniture was of the same type as that noted in Chaldea, a few
pieces of earthenware, stools, and chairs.
In the Middle and Later Empire times the palaces of the barons and
kings rivaled in luxury those of Babylon.
The dress of women was then the loin-cloth and mantle, the poorer
going barefoot, others wearing coarse leather or plaited straw or split reed,
or wooden sandals, and having their necks, breasts, arms, wrists, and ankles
covered with rows of necklaces and bracelets, and their hair towering aloft
and requiring the head rest at night for its support. Later they adorned
themselves with all those trappings enumerated by the prophet Isaiah in his
third chapter, as characteristic of the women of Jerusalem in his day.
The artisan class formed guilds, the son pursuing the occupation of the
lather from generation to generation.
Of public schools there were none. Education was of the priest, save
35 the parents might teach what they knew. Reading, writing, and ele-
mentary arithmetic were common to a large class or classes known as
>crilK'S. The above amount of education, though imj^crfect, l)cing the door
t«» jjovernment employment, was generally sought for, and some of the
>cribfs. though of slave parentage, are recorded as having risen Joseph-like,
loljt vice-regent over half of Egypt ; the country being divided into many
petty districts, each with its hosts of tax-gatherers and small oflficials, gave
''J['[»rtunity for the ambitious.
In those early times, Palestine was occupied in its northern section and
beyond, by a people, now known from the monuments as
'miMrttott the Hittite, and in its southern section by the Canaanite.
These people, like the Chaldeans and Egyptians, also wor-
93
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
shiped the planets. Their chief god was Baal, he being the El of Chaldea,
and the Zeus of Syria and Greece. - This was the pknet Saturn. Baal had
his female companion, Baaltis, who was the Balit of Babylon and the Ashera
of the Hebrews. Baal became later, in the popular language, the sun, and
was worshiped on the tops of hills and the " high places." His compan-
ion goddess had her altars both there and in groves, in forests, under cer-
tain noted trees, as the terebinth, pomegranate, and cypress, or along the
highways, where, as religious acts, women offered themselves to passers-by,
the money received going into the treasury of the god.
At the chief sanctuiaries and temples, one of which, that of Tyre, was so
rich and grand as to astonish the much traveled Herodotus, were kept the
same great class of women, married and unmarried, as were found in
Chaldea and Egypt, and for the same purpose. This class at the sugges-
tion of Balaam, their priest, led the Israelites into sin on that notable occa-
sion mentioned in the Bible.
Mars, the Chaldean god of war and death, was worshiped in Canaan
under the name of Moloch, and its tires were kept perpetually burning to
consume its offerings. And it is recorded that at times as
Bioiocii many as a thousand human beings, captives of war, were
offered at his altars in gratitude for a victory. He was
further propitiated with human victims if, in war, a disaster came, or when
a famine or a pestilence appeared. Then, children, young girls, the most
beautiful, the purest and best of their families, the firstborn of sons, from
the kings to those of the humblest peasant, were thrown alive into the
sacrificial fires.
Carthage, Rome's great rival, founded by Dido, princess of Tyre, B. C.
869, had her Kronos or Moloch altar, as described by the historians, a
huge, half-human, half-monster shaj)ed hollow iron caldron, with out-
stretched arms, and interior ca\'ity flaming with fire, into whose arms hun-
dreds of victims were cast. Hanno's son, Hamilcar, there offered himself
as a burnt offering in the year 480 B. C. When Agathocles of Syracuse
besieged Carthage, himdreds of noble boys were thrown in and consumed,
while their pannts, nuite and tearless, stood by and witnessed their burning
(for a tear or a groan would have rendered the offering vain), the shrieks
94
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
and cries of the victims being drowned by the drums, flutes, double pipes,
and clanging cymbals of the priests.
The Hittite moon-goddess, the Astarte of the Greeks, also demanded
human sacrifices. Like Moloch, her fires were perpetual, albeit, as she
\^as a gixldess of purity and her priests pledged to purity and celibacy,
no married woman might approach her altars save as a sacrifice ; her offer-
ings consisting of married women and maidens. All her priests and serv-
ants were eunuchs.
Maidens coming to her must remain maidens forever, and her devotees
chanvje<l apparel, men donning that of the women, and they, the garments
oi the men.
Her eunuch priests numbered thousands and at her altars the worshipers
gathcreil by the ten thousands, to the beating of drums, blowing of pipes.
Priests *^*^^ clashing cymbals of the priesthood. Then the dev-
of otees contorted their bodies, bending backward and forward,
** till their hair was matted with mire, then swinging aloft their
•irms and swaying their bodies, they moved around and around until,
o>\trf<i with dirt and sweat, they began to beat themselves with knotted
^hip>. to bite their arms, and cut themselves with knives and swords, be-
\\.ii!inv: thtir sins with moan and shriek and anon prophesying, the dancing
''.♦r i^ruuing more fierce and wild, the scourgings more bloody and dread-
• i'. until, resembling beasts at a slaughtering, and exhausted, or uncon-
><i"u>, the worshipers fell to the earth, whereupon the eunuch priests
i'«i>H(l among th** crowd soliciting alms and gifts for the goddess and her
trt.iMiry. upon which, when the ceremonies had ended, they lived and
••'■H<il. Such were Jezebel's priests which the proplul r>lijah slew at
^l'»'ini Carmel. Such were the inhabitants of Palestine whom Moses and
,V^hiM were connnanded to destroy. ^'et there are sentimental souls w ho
th;nk that >U( h commands wt*re cruel. The cruelty lay in sutfering them
^•"urx- tilt* earth witli their dreadful crimes against nature and (lod.
Thr student of history, making his weary way through the fc-arful
>i"uvrh of human degradation, is com|)elled to admit. whate\<r his j)redilec-
fJ^'fH. that Paul's terrific indictment of the heathen world is far from being
o^ffdrawn. The knowledge of nature that should ha\e emiobled man,
95
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
became, through the worship of nature, the great instrument of licentious-
ness and of robbery and oppression and fearful debasement of all mankind.
For four thousand years, the life and thought of men and women of
this earth was as unlike our modern ways as if they had been inhabitants
of another world.
Outside the temples there was no social life for women. If her husband
or father was rich, she was shut up in the harem. If of the middle or
lower class, her life was but little elevated above that of the slaves her hus-
band owned and with no greater privileges than they.
Yet these people were not ignorant and mere savages. Many of the
arts and some of the sciences were known to them and in daily use in the
earliest times after the Flood. But the intellect and the whole nature was
overpoweringly, superstitiously, religious ; and it was- gross, debasing, sen-
sual, and cruel, because their conception of the gods was such. It was
then, for thousands of years, as in India in more recent times, a case of
religiosity gone to seed and withering on its stalk.
With the expansion of the race westward to Europe in the later centu-
ries, some improvement in the condition of woman appears, particularly in
Greece and at Rome, where Plutarch says that for five hun-
Hnrope dred years after Rome was founded it was not scandalized by
a singlp divorce ; an Edenic condition of married life that
seems to have been followed by its opposite when wives were divorced for
every whim, and could also divorce themselves when they pleased. For
the historians tell of one woman who had taken to herself eight different
legal husbands within a period of five years, and of another matron who con-
tinued her marital experiences through a list of twenty-three divorced hus-
bands, her last partner of marifal joys having himself had twenty-one legal
wives, from whom he had been divorced. The Christian Father Tertullian,
so late as A. D. 200, said of the Roman women, that " they married to be
divorced, and were divorced in order to marry again." Ovid, two hun-
dred and twenty-five years earlier, had said of them, that every w'oman had
her price. Nevertheless, in the foulest days of Rome there were some vir-
tuous women, though it must be confessed that worship of the unclean gods
had sunk both women and men very low indeed. Husbands, under Roman
96
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
law, as under ancient Chaldea. had absolute ownership of the wife, even to
taking life.
But outside of Judea, and, possibly, the earlier Persian Empire times,
whatever of advance in the education of woman, religiously or otherwise, is
seen, was confined to the quickening of the intellect of a few women only,
and, it must be confessed, not to the moral or social elevation of the sex.
Indeed, what hope was there for woman, when even that kingliest Man-soul
of all the heathen world, great Socrates, so far forgot what was due to him-
self, and to the immeasurable dignity of womanhood, as to invite that
splendid courtesan, Aspasia, to consult with him as to the best method of
making her traffic more remunerative ?
Turning eastward to India and China, the next great homes of civiliza-
tion, we find that India, a country as large as Europe, and with nearly as
India many people, was originally settled by the tribes of Japheth,
aiMl the third son of Noah, the country possessing many cities
and petty kings and great riches, at the time of Alexander
the Great's invasion.
According to Sanskrit scholars, the rites and ceremonials of this people,
that are contained in what is known as the Brahmanas, go back to B.C. 700,
or alx>ut fourteen hundred years after the time of Abraham ; while the
Co<Ie of Manu, that established castes in India, goes to about B.C. 500.
Here in India, as in the earliest years of Chaldea and of E^ypt, we meet
with the remarkable fact that their early beliefs seem to have been in the
txi^tence of one Supreme Being only, and that then their lives were cor-
respondingly pure. But the priests early took advantage of the religious
instincts in man to advance their own ends, thus securing j^osition, influ-
<-ncc. and money. A degrading form of worship of the solar system
ap|x*ared. and soon its rites, ceremonies, oblations, and penances made the
u h*"*!*- life of the people one of religion only.
While the oldcn>t \'eda teaches a Supreme (iod, later it alludes to thirty-
three gods, whose numbers were ere long ra|)idly multiplied, until the
Hindu Pantheon is now said to contain no less than 33,ooo,(Xx^ gods.
About B. C. 600 we meet with that awful thing that so rent the hearts
r»f mothers, the first record of human sacrifices to the gods in India.
07
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
In a land where polygamy prevailed and where the same debasement
of woman to the sacred harlotry that is noted in Chaldea and elsewhere in
connection with the temple services has prevailed for thousands of years,
and yet continues in spite of modern missionary effort, the condition of
these hundreds of millions of women, mothers and daughters of India,
cannot be understood in its horrors, without reference to that other strange
teaching of those Hindu Scriptures that was peculiar to themselves, namely,
the suttee or burning alive of widows on the funeral pyre of their dead hus-
bands. This practice was known to history over two thousand years
ago, and Raja Radhakant Deb, of Calcutta, a native Hindu,
The
Suttee ^"^^ ^"^ ^^ ^^ foremost of living Sanskrit scholars of the
world, says it was practiced by their early kings and sages
centuries previously, and that it is taught in their sacred books, of which he
gives several citations. In case the widow refused the suttee she was con-
sidered to have dishonored, her relatives, whereupon the disgraced family
made her life so full of torture and shame that she fled to the fire in prefer-
ence. If during the burning she sought to escape from the flames, her
relatives considerately thrust her back to be consumed. This hideous cus-
tom prevailed in India for two thousand five hundred years, and it is said
that -even now, nothing but the strong hand of the English government
prevents the revival of the practice.
The Code of Manu divides the populace into, first, the Brahmans, who,
having originally proceeded from the mouth of the god, are the most holy
Caste ^^ "^^'^ ^"^ must not be taxed by the king or enraged, else
In their curse would destroy his armies and retinue ; secondly,
India ^^ Kshatriya or military and kingly caste, who issued from
the god's arms ; third, the Vaisya or agricultural caste, coming from his
thighs ; and the servile Sudra caste, proceeding from the feet of the god.
The first three are '* twice born." The Brahman child receives the
investiture of the sacred thread in his eighth year, the Kshatriya in his
eleventh, the Vaisya in his twelfth, with great ceremonies, this constituting
the second or spiritual birth, while the Sudra child does not get it at all,
the last being born but once. But this last is as proud of his caste and as
particular as any of the higher orders and will not intermarry with them.
98
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
for in such case their children would not be even Sudras, and so, even to
this day, the person who dresses your hair in India will not brush your
clothes, nor the table waiter deign to carry your umbrella, for the caste is
as sacred to them as religion, and is religion.
While in the early times women seem to have had a certain degree of
freedom and social equality, yet for thousands of years the condition of
woman in India has been one of abject submission to her lordly husband or
lather. The Sacred Books say, " Day and night must women be made to
feel their dependence on their husbands " ; * ' Let not a husband eat with
his w ife, nor look at her eating " ; " Women have no business to repeat
texts of the Veda, thus is the law established" ; '* As far as a wife obeys
her husband, so far is she exalted in heaven " ; '* A husband must be con-
tinually revered as a god by a virtuous wife."
And yet in the Mahabharata of these Hindu Scriptures occurs these
truthful, noble words, concerning woman :. —
**A wife is half the man, his truest friend,
A loving wife is a perpetual spring
Of virtue, pleasure, wealth. A faithful wife
Is the best aid in seeking heavenly bliss.
A sweetly speaking wife is a companion
In solitude; a father in advice;
A mother in all seasons of distress;
A rest in passing through life's wilderness."
Throughout all agc^ and everywhere, religion is seen to be as j^ersistent
«ij.ia in the history of mankind as marriage is, and has had as much or
"^♦'rc influence on woman's condition. And in seeking to account for the
^ideand long continued dominance of such horrid faiths as ha\e been here
^'Oliced, faiths that made woman but a chattel, and unsiK'akably tortured
ami (jfjrraded her for thousands of years tln-oughout all the ancient world,
'^inusi he confessed that their great secret lay in that awful future of which
^^' claimed to have the e.\clusi\ e knowledge.
With the later Hindus, who were transmigrationists, all who die go to
the moon, which to them was the gate to the heavenly world.
Trail*-
migration There a threefold alternative was offered the soul. If good-
ness had characterized its earth life, it would pass in its
99
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
transmigrations through the deities. If it had been ruled by passion, it
must then pass through men. If a life of sin had distinguished its earthly
career (and transgressions of or neglect of religious ceremonies and offenses
against the priests were far worse sins than any violations of the moral
law), it must pass through beasts and plants; each of these degrees having
also three sub-degrees, with 8,400,000 births, and continuing through
twenty-one, or, as some of the sacred books say, twenty-eight, hells or pur-
gatories, each more furious and awful than a Dante could ever dream, and
requiring a " kalpa " or two billion one hundred and sixty millions of
years to pass through them all.
With such fearful destiny before them, how was it possible for mortals
not to make the worship of the gods of destiny the one great concern of
their life, as they have been doing for thousands of years in that ancient
land of India?
And as these, their gods, were licentious, intriguing, and warring with
each other in the heavens, what wonder that the worshiper on earth fol-
lowed their example?
In the Hindu poem, the Mahabharata, " The Great War of Bharata,*'
is to be found the highest Hindu conception of woman's truth and purity
and loving devotion to her husband, equal to anything to be found in any
literature.
But at that early time we find the marriage custom or system of poly-
andry prevailing even in their court circles, while gross licentiousness,
gambling, and drunkenness characterized the wealthy classes everywhere.
Throughout the whole history of that great country the condition of
woman has been, to our modern thought, most degrading and sorrowful
and bitter in the extreme.
One half of the people now on earth are Mongolians. Their tribes
have covered or influenced more than half the land surface of the globe,
east, west, north, and south. Their original home is now
China
within the Russian Empire and covers an area as large as the
United States exclusive of Alaska. Their most important modern country
is China, that present great home of more than a third of the human race.
The Chinese are the only stereotyped nation on the globe. While, for
100
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
instance, their present vessels and tonnage exceed in number that of all the
other nations of the world, yet they use the same junks and tackle now as
their people did before the birth of Christ, and money is weighed in scales
as in Abraham's day. The manners and customs of their forefathers four
thousand years ago are their present customs and manners.
They claim their written language was given by the philosopher Fou-
hee (supposed by some to be Noah), B. C. 3200, or, according to others,
B. C. 2800, who, they say, taught them agriculture and how to make cloth-
ing, furniture, and other arts of life, and gave the marriage laws to his
people.
Another tradition names the philosopher Tsang-ki, B. C. 2800 or B. C.
2500, as the author of writing in Clfina, of which there are thirty different
styles.
There are fragments of Chinese literature (calendars or local events
only) as ancient, it is supposed, as B. C. 2000, but very little authentic his-
tory before the fifth century before Christ, the days of the reformer and
moralist Confucius (B. C. 551-479), who sought to revive the ancient
usages and morals. He left a compilation, the Shu- King, or Book of
Annals, covering the ancient times to B. C. 560, and more than any other
has made China what it has been for ages past. Those Annals, however,
are a mere jumble of ancient names, legends, ceremonies, and sayings, and
accf»rding to no interpretation history in our modern sense.
His code of rites, the Li-ki, a compilation of ancient usages, still' regu-
lates the Chint^se manners. These ceremonial usages, estimated at three
thousand, are interpreted by one of the bureaus at Pekin, the Board of
Rites.
The primitive Chinc*se religion was very simple, the worship of a
Supreme Being. Later, they worshiped, as now, the wise men of olden
'TeAclBlnKM ^""^*^ *^"^ the souls of their ancestors. Rut Confucius taught
of that from this Original Being came Vang, the Perfect, includ-
coMToelas j^^^ ** heaven, sun, day, heat, manhood," and Yen, the
Imperfect, comprising "moon, earth, night, cold, womanhood," which
crude philosophy has been the principle of government and of religion for
ihe past two thousand three hundred years in China, and sheds much light
101
WOMAN IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD.
upon the sad condition of women in that vast empire. For thousands of
years she has been, like her sex in other ancient lands, little, if any, better
off than the most abject of slaves, this perfect creature, man, in China,
literally owning the imperfect being, woman, and selling her or beating
her as he wished.
Polygamy was anciently and is yet openly tolerated, secondary wives
being common, especially if the first is childless.
While those ancient morals compiled by Confucius were excellent, they
have not made China moral. The obedience to and reverence for parents,
superiors, and rulers, that he declared the sages of old had taught men,
soon degenerated into a despotic form of government, and into a supersti-
tious reverence for parents. Their religion, their morals, their wisdom,
begin in words and end in words.
China, in short, is the gray ages of the times of Abraham projected into
our modern days ; the stagnant sea of humanity yet unvivified by the
heralds of the twentieth century civilization.
The historian Lecky has somewhere said that Christianity introduced
two new ideas into the world — the brotherhood of man and the sacred-
ness of human life. It did far more, it created a new wo-
Rcaren- ^an wherever it regenerated a man. At its coming, three
quarters of the immense population of Rome, the then great
capital of the world, were paupers, and much more than that proportion
were dissolute in morals and life, while it was far worse outside of Rome.
But thereafter, wherever the Christian faitii was accepted and lived, whether
by individuals or conununities, it became synonymous with purity, its first
cardinal virtue. If purity had hitherto been found among men and w^omen,
and, thank God, it had, it existed, not because of their religions, but in
spite of them. Thereafter, religion was to mean purity, and the elevation
and ennobling of woman, wherever its influence was rightly understood
and it was permitted, in freedom, to exercise its beneficence.
102
Mmc^
BOOK TWO
WOMAN
DURING THE
FIRST FOUR CHRISTIAN CENTURIES
TO FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
&
is '
MARY, MOTHKk OK CFIRIST.
RfpriKliuril tri'in the jjaintinK «)f I'ranz von DefrcKjjer;
cxhibittd al \hr HvrUn (tnlenary Exhibition.
ELIZABETH.
MOTHER OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
" *
rrlO this woman was given the honor of being the mother of the one
-L concerning whom Christ sjiicl : ' ' Among them that are born of
w-imen there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist."
Her husband was Zacharias, a priest. The j^riests were divided into
twenty-four courses and served in turn at the temple. The hill country
near Hebron was probably the home of Elizabeth and her husband. They
were both well advanced in years, and childless. This was counted one of
the greatest of calamities by the Jews.
While Zacharias was in the temple offering incense and praying, an
angel appeared to him and promised that a son should be born to them,
notwithstanding their old age. The special characteristics of this son were
to be greatness in the sight of the Lord ; abstinence from wine and strong
drink ; and fullness of the Holy Spirit. In his work he would turn back to
the Lord many of the sons of Israel and make ready the people for the
Lord's coming.
There is a charm about the couple set forth in a single vi rse : " And
ihey were both righteous before (iod. walking in all the commandments
.ind ordinances of the Lord, blameless."
We have but one glimj)se of John's childhood and young manhood.
"The child grew and waxed strong in s|)irit and was in the dtsirts till tin-
fiay of his showing unto Israel. " He was gathering |)ow('r lo be in faith
and fearlessness the Lord's forerumier and make ready His ways. Blood
will tell and so will training. John had his mother and the mountains and
'lo^J. His father was alsf> his teacher in the inter\als of his absiiiei.' from
V nice at the temple.
Theirs wa^ probably an isolated home and John was .icen>tome(l to soli-
v.nie. but here was formed that rugged character \\lii<h inabled him, like
F.!:\'ih cif old, to denounce people an<l princes for their sins and call them
■'■» k to (iod.
105
MARY.
THE MOTHER OF CHRIST.
WHKN the Son of God came to earth, he came not as an angel, but
was born into our humanity. To be the true mediator between
God and man he must be both human and divine. The human
heart feels the need of this, to have one, who, from experience, knows our
needs and nature, and at the same time has absolute and unlimited access
to God. One born in the order of nature would not be to us the divine-
human Saviour. This is, in part, the reason which lies back of the super-
natural conception of Jesus Christ.
But we do not claim his Divine Sonship on the basis of the account of
his birth, merely. His life and teachings and the kingdom he founded, are
the proofs which attest his supernatural and divine conception.
Mary of Nazareth was the one honored of God to be the mother of the
world's Saviour.
Before the birth of Christ, but after the divine announcement had been
made, Mary journeyed to the hill country to visit her kinswoman, Elisa-
beth, who was to become the mother of John the Baptist. In Luke i :
46-55, we have the song of Mary which begins : —
** My soul doth magnify the lx)rd,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath looked upon the low estate of his handmaiden :
For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.**
This is known in literature as the Magnificat. It shows a mind thor-
oughly imbued with the spirit and substance of Hebrew poetry, and at once
marks Mary as a woman of superior intellect and deep piety.
The birth of Jesus in the Bethlehem stable *' because there was no room
for them in tlie inn," touches the deepest emotion of every mother's
heart. The flight into Kgypt because of the murderous decree of the in-
sanely jealous Herod touches the hearts of all fathers and mothers, the
natural guardians of babes.
106
MARY.
At twelve years of age Jesus visits Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary and
a great company of their kinsfolk and acquaintances. Upon their return
he is missing, and, after long search, is found in the temple in the midst of
the doctors of the law. To Mary's words, ** Thy father and I have sought
thee sorrowing,'* he replies: "Wist ye not that I must be about my
Father 5 business? '* We cannot say whether Mary had yet told him of his
divine parentage, but he evidently knows it now and recognizes that his life
»ork is to do his Father's will.
F"or eighteen years there is silence. We are told that " the child grew,
and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom." We learn from later
re\elation that he worked at the trade of a carpenter in Nazareth. But he
was at the same time training for the memorable three years of ministry —
the central years of the world's history.
His public ministry did not begin with a sudden impulse, but was pre-
pared for by his whole life. The consciousness of his di\ ine nature and
|K)wer grew and ripened and strengthened until the time of his showing
unto Israel.
When that ministry began and during much of its continuance, Mary
*as with her son and his disciples, and, with other motherly women, min-
i>tere<l to this band of young men.
Then- was the year of obscurity, — the year of j)ul)lic fa\or, — and the
vt-ar of opposition. And that mother in hoi)e, or joy, or anguisli, kept
"•arhim. I'pon one or two occasions he was obliged to i^^^eiUlv put aside
•Vr loving and o\eran\ious interference, for he must l)e directed from
'^'''•vt. never from about him.
When there came that dark and awful tragedy of Cahary, Mary was at
the cross. It was there that Jesus provided for his mother while he was
'^yinjr. Looking upon her and his belo\ ed (li>eii)lc, John, he uttered two
><-nl»'nces : '* Behold thy son," " Behold thy niotlur." l)y this, de^ii^nating
John a> the one who should lovinj^ly care for his mother.
.Mar\' is again mentioned in Aets 1:14, where we ha\e the picture (»f
]'->us' followers, after his resurrection and as(cnsioii. leathered in an ui)i)er
r-K^m in Jeru>iilem engaged in prayer, and waiting for the Pentecostal out-
{i'»uring.
107
MARY IVIAQDALENB.
A. D. 32.
THE CURED DEMONIAC.
XT is Strange how the painter's brush can lie and be guilty of a vile
¥ slander. Again, the vitality and self-propagating power of a lie is
T marvelous.
The name of Magdalene is chiefly associated in the popular mind with
the picture of a voluptuous though sad woman, and with places of refuge
for fallen women.
There is not the slightest evidence in the gospel narratives or in the
writings of the early church fathers, that Mary Magdalene had ever been a
woman of ill repute. She had been possessed of seven demons*, and Jesus
cast them out, freeing her from the awful malady. It would be unspeak-
ably cruel in these days to assume that every insane woman was an
abandoned character. Insanity does often come as a result of sin, but in-
sanity is not proof of sin.
Demoniacal possession in the days of Christ was more than insanity.
The powers of darkness seem to have been let loose when the Son of God
came to earth. The special manifestation of God's benevolence was met by
the special manifestation of demoniacal malignity.
Mary had probably been a poor, wild, raving creature like the Gadarene
demoniac, and the terrible affliction resulted in an emaciated form and a
face with scars and deep lines. When she was cured, every drop of blood
in her veins went out in gratitude to her Deliverer and she followed him,
with Mary, his own mother, and ministered to him of her property. She
was, no doubt, a woman of mature years, like the mother of Jesus, and next
to her is the most prominent female character in the New Testament. She
was last at the cross, last to leave the tomb, first to visit it on the resur-
rection morning, and first to carry the news that Christ had risen.
Christ's work for Mary Magdalene and her loving ministration to him
constitute the type of the elevation of woman to the rank of friendship
with man. She is no longer his slave, but his co-worker and equal, capa
ble of accepting ecjual responsibilities and sharing equally in the results.
108
HERODIAS AND SALOME.
A. D. 31.
WIFE AND STEP-DAUGHTER OF HEROD ANTIPAS.
-•»—*—«♦-
r^ERODIAS is the Jezebel of the New Testament. First she married
P/ her uncle, Herod Philip. Antipas, half-brother of Philip, came to
Rome to receive his investiture as a Tetrarch and was entertained
by Philip. The hospitality was basely rewarded by the intrigues of Hero-
dias and Antipas. Ambitious and shameless she agreed to come to him
upon his return and after he had divorced his wife. This was accom-
plished.
John the Baptist fearlessly told Herod that it was not lawful for him to
have his brother's wife. Herodias was furious and swore vengeance upon
]ohn. Antipas, though a tyrant, feared John and for a time stood between
the prophet and the woman who thirsted for his blood. Nothing but the
death of the Baptist would satisfy the resentment of Herodias. Though
ioiled once she continued to watch her opportunity.
There was a great banquet at Machaereus in honor of Herod's birth-
day. While the drunken revelry was at its height, Herodias sent in her
dauirhter Salome as a ballet dancer for the revelers. They were charmed,
ind Herod in his drunken delight promised to give anything she asked,
even to the half of his kingdom (though he could not give away the
smallest village without permission from Rome). Tlie royal dancer retired,
insulted with her mother and returned, demanding the head of John on
one of the great platters of the banquet table.
Herod was shocked into soberness and sought to extricate himself and
5ave John, but he could neither face the laugh of his guests nor the wrath
of Herodias, and the ghastly gift was brotight.
Herod's fortunes soon declined. Urged on by Herodias, he sought the
title of king, from Oesar. The jealousy of Agrippa was aroused ; charges
mere brought against him, he was stripped of his power and banished. His
tfuilty companion followed him and they both died in exile. The only re-
deeming feature in this woman's character is that she evidently loved
Antipas and voluntarily chose exile with him.
109
AORIPPINA II.
A. I>. 10-51).
MOTHER OF NERO.
"^^ERO was a monster of iniquity. His reign was a carnival of crime.
r^/ Who and what was the mother of this man? She was born in a
te Roman camp on the shores of the Rhine. Germanicus was her
father, and Agrippina the Mrst, her mother. Her fiery and ambitious
spirit was probably stimuhited by her father's conquests. After the death
of her father she was driven into exile by her brother, Caligula, who accused
her of conspiracy.
After some years, Agrippina married, for her second husband, her uncle
Claudius, who Iku! become emperor. She ruled him absolutely, and when
she thoui^ht he had lived lonj^ enough caused him to be poisoned in order
that she might (jbtain the throne for her s<^n Xcro. Claudius had a son,
Hritannicus, by his first wife, Nk'ssalina, who was therefore the rightful heir
of the throne. He was put out of the way as his father had been, by
whose hand we cannot say.
Agrippina was inc^rdinately ambitious for her son Nero. She was in
many resj)ects a woman of ability in aflfairs of state. Her ambition was at
at last gratified in seeing her son j)roclaimed emperor. But she could not
readily reliiupiish her power, and so there arose jealousy l>etween mother
and son. She was warned of danger, but exclaimed, " Let me perish, but
let Nero reign ! "
The son who had rctaclied the throne by his mother's crimes, turned
against Iier and j)lolte(l lier deatli. He caused a boat to be so constructed
that it would easily fall to ])ieces in a slight storm. This occurred as
.Agrijjpina was crossing the (lulf of Haiie. Instead of drowning she swam
ashore, and later was brutally murdered. Her unscrupulous ambition for
her son had its grim recompense.
P\>r ten years she was the virtual ruler, that is, for the last five years c
Claudius' life and the first five years of Nero's occupation of the thron'
and her reign, though marked by domestic crimes, was a prosperous O'
for the state.
110
'A
X
as©
SHIPWRECK DF AGRIPPINil.
RBprDLlucBri frnin the CBlahratBd painting by
Gustav IVerthBlrnBr. (Sbb " i^ntany and CIbd-
patra." )
"-^^/\"X^
MARTHA AND MARY.
-SHjf-J-
THE BETHANY SISTERS.
IC^OT Martha versus Mary, but Martha and Mary. They were very
I / unlike, but each was the complement of the other and both were
the friends of Jesus and helped to make the home in Bethany a
restful place to which he could come from the murderous plottings of the
priests and Pharisees.
Martha was probably the elder of the two, a vigorous, matronly, bus-
tlinj^ housewife, over-careful about a multitude of unimportant details of the
household. She was no doubt proud of her perfectly ordered home, but
she had by degrees become tjie slave of her ambition to have the best kept
house in Bethany.
Mar)', on the other hand, was of a contemplative mind and had more of
ahunijering for spiritual things. When Christ came to their home she
t'H-k the opportunity, not to entertain him, but to learn of him. " For the
^nof Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and he was
h'M pka^ed when people received from him. He commended Mary and
t"M Martha that she was unnecessarily burdening herself with ()\ er-careful-
nt-'S and much serving. Her zeal was honored in its turn, liowever, and
>ht shared e(|iially in the Lord's affection.
WV a^L^ain see the sisters when bereavement has come. Their brother
La^arus. the loved friend of Jesus, is dead. They send word to Jesus. He
C"nK*s lo Bethany. Martha is first to meet him and hear the wonderful
»or<lr,f rr^mfort, ** I am the Resurrection and the Life." Their brother is
r^ti.rcd to them, the broken circle is made wliole.
Shortly before the death of Christ we see him again in Bethany in the
house <.f Simon the leper, where a banquet is gi\en in his honor. Martha
^^^'> at the table, lovingly ministering to tlie j)hysica] comfort of the
K^^ls. NLiry brings an alabaster box of ointment and anoints the head
Md feet of Je*sus in a manner fit for royalty. Thus the two sisters, each in
btrown way, show their devotion to Christ.
113
DORCAS.
A. I>. 87.
THE QUEEN OF THE NEEDLE.
/1\ HE Scripture notice of this woman is confined to a few verses in the
JL ninth chapter of Acts, hut her name to this day stands for the
benevolent use of the needle. Her example has been an inspira-
tion to women in all these years of church history.
Her home was at Joppa. She was associated with a little band of
Christians, most of whom, like herself, were poor. The words of Jesus had
no doubt been the movinjiif power in her soul. ' ' For I was an hungred
and ye gave me meat,; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink ; I was a
stranger and ye took me in ; naked and ye clothed me ; I was sick and ye
visited me ; I was in prison and ye came unto me." And " Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done
it unto me."
She "was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.'* Her
piety was eminently practical. It was a sad blow to the little band when
Dorcas died. They at once sent for Peter, who was in the neighboring city
of Lydda.
When he came he found the people grief-stricken. The widows pre-
sented an eloquent eulogy on the life and character of Dorcas by showing
some of the many coals and garments which she had made. Here were
aged widows whose hands were too feeble to hold the needle and too poor
to pay others for the work. They showed the warm garments Dorcas had
made to protect them from the cold winds which often swept in from the
Mediterranean. And here were younger widows with little children who
had been clothed by Dorcas. How could they ever find another such
friend ?
But Dorcas was given buck to them. Life was restored by a great
miracle. Peter knelt down and prayed. Then turning to the body, he
said, **Tabitha, arisel" "And slie opened her eyes; and when she saw
Peter she sat up. " The mourners' tears were wiped away and the work
of the Lord grew mightily.
114
LOIS AND EUNICE.
A. D. 50.
GRANDMOTHER AND MOTHER OF TIMOTHY.
Inj/ HEY were Jewesses, living among a people who worshiped the gods
® I fe of Greece. Eunice had married a Greek, and to them was born a
son whom they named Timothy.
Coming to Lystra on his second missionary tour, Paul found the young
man highly spoken of by the little group of Christians. He was of such
e\ident ability and promise that Paul made him his missionary helper.
Where he was converted we cannot say, but we conclude that Paul's first
visit to Lystra had much to do with it. At that time Paul and Silas healed
a lame man, and the heathen population became so enthusiastic that they
called them Jupiter and Mercury, and the priest of Jupiter was about to offer
sacrifice unto them as gods. But soon after, the Jews stirred up the people
and Paul was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left by the wayside for
dtad. But he recovered and bravely comforted the few who had become
Christians.
Timothy must have known about iill this, possibly he saw botli the
attempteil worship and the stoning. Then, or later, he became a follower
of the Saviour whom Paul preached, and was ready to be a pupil and
hdptrr of Paul when he returned.
When, yt^ars later, Paul lay in the prison at Rome awaitini^ trial and
execution, he writes his second letter to his beloved helper, calling to
rcmtmbrance the faith Timothy had shown, and reininclint^ him that this
^mQ faith was first in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.
•Vain, he says to Timothy, " From a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures.
Grandmother and mother had no doubt Ixen his teachers. His fit-
nttss i(\ be the companion and co-worker of Paul fnuls its exi)lanation
lar)^ely in the home training and pious example i^iven him by these two
noHe women. It was from them also that the youth derived his first im-
pressions of Christian truth ; for Paul calls to rememi)rance the unfeigned
iaith which first dwelt in them.
115
LYDIA.
A. D. 58.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CONVERT IN EUROPE.
§ER native place was Thyatira on the borders of Lydia in Asia Minor.
Her city was celebrated in ancient times for its purple dyes and
fabrics. Among the ruins of the city has been found in recent years
an inscription relating to the *' Guild of Dyers,*' showing the accuracy in
unimportant details of this scripture narrative.
She may have borne a different name at home, but among strangers she
was known as Lydia or the Lydian. She was a business woman, dealing
in coloring matter, or more likely goods already dyed. The color purple
was highly prized among the ancients.
Lydia had settled in the city of Philippi, which was a miniature Rome.
Here she carried on her business, surrounded by her household, which
seems to have included many servants.
She was not a Jewess by birth, but had come to a knowledge of the true
God, and was a proselyte and a devout worshiper.
Philippi was the scene of the first labors of Paul in Europe. One Sab-
bath day he found a company of Jews worshiping outside the city, near a
river. He preached to them, and Lydia' s heart was opened to receive the
truth. She at once urged the missionaries to make her house their home.
Paul hesitated to do this, as he made it a rule not to be dependent on any-
one, but he finally accepted her hospitality.
For having cured a poor, half-crazed slave girl, who brought her mas-
ters much gain by fortune telling, Paul and Silas were cruelly beaten and
cast into jail.
By means of a mighty earthquake, the prisoners were released from
their bonds, and the jailer was converted. On the following day the mag-
istrate dismiss(fd Paul and Silas. A farewell meeting was held at the home
of Lydia, and we may suppose that the converted jailer was one of the
company. Paul then departed to carry the gospel to other cities of
Europe. His most loving epistle was written from the prison in Rome to
the church at Philippi.
ih;
EPONINA.
A. D. 40-78.
HEROINE OF CONJUGAL AFFECTION.
4— jOf — h
¥^^ER husband was Julius Sabinus. He pretended to be a descendant
£ # of Julius Caesar and laid claim to the throne when several others
^ were seeking the same prize. He was defeated and a large reward
was offered for his capture. He declared his intention of committing
suicide by burning his own house and perishing in the flames. The house
UHs burned and his friends and enemies supposed him dead.
Under his house there was a ca\'ern to which he betook himself instead
0! dying, and the secret was communicated to but one friend, Martial.
Eponina, who was absent at the time, heard of his death and was so
overcome with grief that for many days she would eat nothing, and was in
danger of sacrificing her own life. Martial at last communicated to her the
iact that Sabinus was not dead, but hidden in the cave under the ruins of
their villa.
She was conducted to his hiding place by night, but returned before
morning. She was advised by Martial to keep up the appearance of grief
i'^rsome months, which she did.
For nine years the husband lived in this cave, visited as often as possible
by h\> devoted wife.
Sii>picions were at last aroused and Sabinus was discovered and l)rought
More the emperor. The death sentence was passed ui)()n him. Kponina
prtKirait-*! herself before the emperor and im|)lore(l him to s|)are her hus-
Wl after hi> nine years of imprisonment, but he was ine\oral)le. She
chf»M- to shan- the fate of her husband.
When thev were led to execution, I\poniiia turned indignantly to the
^•mjK'ror and said : ** Learn, X'espasian. that 1 ha\ e cnjoyi-d more haj)-
\>\m^^ in the performance of my duties and in j)rol()ngin^ thr life of your
'•K^tim. though but in the rude n-cessc-s of an oi)scurc ( a\< rn, than you will
hf-no-forth e\er enjoy amidst the splendors th it surround y(»ur throne."
The sympathies of the Roman j)eo|)le were with llponina, and her heroic
Melity was a theme upon which they dwelt with |)ride.
ur
PRISCILLA.
A. D. 54.
THE MISSIONARY TENTMAKER.
) QUI LA and Priscilla, a noble Christian couple, had been driven
from Rome by the decree of Claudius Caesar. A large Jewish col-
ony dwelt at Rome in a crowded quarter on the banks of the Tiber.
Suetonius, a Roman historian, has a statement which exactly fits the words
of Acts XVIII : 2. He says, " Claudius banished the Jews from Rome, who
were constantly making disturbances, at the instigation of one Chrestus.**
Christianity had no doubt been introduced into Rome by some of the Jews
who were converted at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. These Chris-
tians were no doubt persecuted at Rome, as elsewhere by the Jews, and,
for the disturbances, the whole Jewish colony was banished.
During the early decades of Christianity the Romans did not distinguish
between Jews and Christians. Suetonius' statement about '^Chrestus"
shows an ignorance that is amusing. He evidently had heard the name of
Christ connected with the disturbances.
Aquila and Priscilla were already Christians, but suffered banishment
with the others. They were tcntmakers by trade and finally settled in
Corinth, which was a great center of commerce, culture, and especially of
iniquity, for here was a temple to Venus with a thousand abandoned
women as attendants.
Paul on his second missionary tour came to Corinth and, finding Aquila
and Priscilla, made his home with them. They were attached by a three-
fold tie : they were Jews by birth, Christians by profession, and tentmakers
by trade, and Paul, while he worked as a missionary, worked with his
friends at their trade.
He was so successful in his missionary work, that at the end of a year
and a half the Jews raised such a persecution that the three tentmakers
were driven from the city, to Ephesus, where Paul left his friends and
sailed to Syria, visiting Jerusalem and Antioch.
Some time after Paul's departure, there came to Ephesus a learned and
eloquent man of Alexandria, Apollos by name, who had heard and accepted
118
PHOEBB.
A. D. 60.
DEACONESS OF CENCHREA.
|^>^EXCHREA was the seaport of Corinth. A Christian church had
^Jj^ been established here by Paul. While working in Corinth he wrote
his famous letter to the Romans and sent it by the hand of Phoebe.
In the 1 6th chapter her name stands at the head of a long list of noble
workers.
Phtebe is called a " servant *' of the church, but the word in the origi-
nal is "diakonos," from which we derive our word deacon. So, while she
is called '* servant" of the church, the term evidently refers to an official
position.
She seems to have been a business woman and to have had some affairs
oi her own to attend to in Rome, for Paul urges the Christians at Rome to
be of any possible assistance to her. A high tribute is paid to her as " a
succorer of many and of myself also." By her means and in person she
had ministered to the sick and distressed.
PrtHclUa continued,
S"me things of the Christian religion and was working enthusiastically
among his own people, the Jews.
Thf tentmakers heard him and, while rejoicing at his ability and zeal,
thry >aw that he had but part of the truth. He was invited to their abode
^'i learned of them more fully the truth of Christianity. The tentniakei-s
Had become teachers, and the name of the wife is placed first.
A ft-w years later they evidently returned to Rome, for l^uil in his letter
!'■ the Ronians sends them greeting (Rom. xvi : 4 ). In this single
• ersewe learn that he remembered them as his "helpers" in the gospel
^'»rk. hf was no doubt thinking of the days in Corinth. .Aj^ain, he says
J-^.it {or his life thev laid down their own necks. SoinelK)w, th(*\' had sax'ed
"^ lift- at the risk of their own. And, l.istly, he spiaks of " the church
^h;<-h is in their house." Their home had become tin- meeting place of
the Christians in Rome at a time when it was neither jK)ssible nor safe f(<r
th*-ni to have a special house of worshijx
110
BOADICEA.
Died A. D. 6S.
BRITISH QUEEN.
J^OADICEA was wife of Prasutaj^as, king of the Iceni, a tribe of east-
l2r cm Hritain.
It is the old story, evt?r repeated, of imperial rapacity and
cruelty. The Romans had invatled Britain on the pretext that they helped
the Gauls. Kiuir IVasuta^as, in order to appease the emperor and
protect his family, Kft half of his threat fortune to Nero and the remainder
to his wife and daughters. The Roman officers, on the pretext that Boadi-
cea had conce.iled a ])art of the property, seized the whole. The queen
protested against such high handed proceedings. The officers in revenge
caused her to be stripped and scourged and her daughters were given to
the soldiers. This treatment, worst* than death, roused the queen and peo-
ple to desperation. She assembled the Britons and with spear in hand and
the passionate and i)athetic elocpience of wronged womanhood, recounted
their sufferings at the hands of the Romans and called upon them to repel
the invaders. Boaditea led the attack in person and the Romans, seventy
thousand in number, were slaughtered. Tlu: noble queen and her
daughters had been avenged.
The Roman general, who had been absent from the first batde, returned
with ten thousand soldiers and for a time shut himself up in London in
doubt whether to give battle to the vast host who followed the queen. At
length he came forth. Boadicea in her chariot, accompanied by her
daughter, urged the Britons to con([uer or die. " Is it not much l>etter to
fall honorably in defense of liberty, than be again exposed to the outrages
of the Romans? Such at least is my resolution ; as for you men, you may,
if you i)lease, live and be slaves ! "
The result was a total defeat and dreadful slaughter of the brave
Britons. Kighty thousand were left dead on the field. The queen died,
either of des])air or poison, in 62, looking for the prophecy of the Druid
priest to be fulfilled, '* Rome shall perish — write that word in the blood that
she has spilt ; — perish, hopeless and abhorred, deep in ruin as in guilt.'*
120
gUKKN BOADICl.A.
gUEEN BDADICEA.
o^
REprDciucBd from en Etching of the statue ai
Bnadicea by J, Thnmas, a Welsh sculptor and
painter. Thcmas was a pupil of Chantrey, and an
Exhibitor at the .Royal Academy, London, for
many years. Anion.q his portrait statues and
busts, " Music," " P.acket Flayer," " Statue of the
Marquis of 3ute," and " Statue of "^Bllinc;ton,"
sra the most promiuBnt,
BERNICE.
A. D. 65.
DAUGHTER OF HEROD AGRIPPA.
^ HE study of the career of this woman brings us into acquaintance
\[j ^ with a number of important historic characters.
T Bernice was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I. and the sister of
Agrippa H., before whom Paul preached (Acts xxv-: 13,23 and xxvi :3o).
She first marrieii her uncle, Herod, King of Chalcis, and by him had two
sons. After his death she went to live with her brother Agrippa, and was
under suspicion of sustaining immoral relations to him. To hush up this
sandal she proposed marriage to Polemon, king of Cilicia, on condition
that he adopt the Jewish faith. This he did. But after a few years she
wearied of him and went back to her brother, aiul Polemon renounced
Judaism, his adopted faith.
Abf)ut 65 A. I)., she went to Jerusalem and interceded with the Roman
K^vemor for the Jews, at the risk of her own life, for he was at this time
earning on a cruel persecution of the Jews. She, with her brother, sought
to dissuade the Jews from rebellion. This lulpetl to secure tlieir own
^Akiy and the favor of the Romans.
.\fter the destruction of Jerusalem, Bernice and Agripjxi made a journey
tf' Rome, where she further gained the good will of the emperor W-spasian
by her gifts and won his son Titus by her i)eauty. Titus was about to
•Tiarry her, but the protest of the Romans pre\ ented him. She was ac-
C'-niinj^ly sent away with the promise that he would call her back when the
tumuh had ceased.
Bernice was very scrupulous about religious observances, but to matters
^•* morality she ga\e little heed.
At the time of Paul's noted speech before Agrippa, which is ^Wm in
At"t> \x\ I. Brrnice was present. .She and Agri])pa had cnmv with great
F»^'nip to pay a visit to Festus. the goxcrnor at Ca'san-a. It was Aj^rippa
•Ahosaid. sarcastically or otherwise, ** Almost thou prrsuadest nw to be a
^"hnstian. ' '
123
B LAN DIN A.
A. I>. 177.
THE SLAVE GIRL OF LYONS.
^(HE was one of the forty-eight martyrs of Lyons who perished durin
}<^ the terrible religious persecution under the emperor Marcus Aurc
lius.
In the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius (260-339) i^ given a lei
ter which records the sufferings of the Christians at Lyons. First, the
were excluded from houses, baths, and market places, so that nothin
belonging to them could appear in public. They bore all patiently, '*Es
teeming what was deemed great but little, they hastened to Christ, showin
in reality that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared wit
the glory that shall be revealed in us. And first they nobly sustained a
the evils that were heaped upon them by the populace ; clamors and blows
plundering and robberies, stonings and imprisonments, and whatsoever
savage people delight to inflict u])on enemies."
Pagan slaves, fearing lest they should be included in the persecutions
sought to protect themselves by charging their Christian masters with gros
crimes. The pagan populace and magistrates fell upon the Christians an»
dragged them to death. Among them was Blandina, herself a poor slav
girl, but a Christian who honored her sex and her religion by her constanc
and courage.
The ancient letter from the Church in Lyons has this to say : '* Whil
we were all trembling, and her earthly mistress, who was herself one of th
contending martyrs, was apprehensive, lest, through the weakness of th
flesh, she should not be able to make a bold confession, Blandina was fiUe
with such ])ower, that her ingenious tormentors, who relieved and succeede
each other from morning till night, confessed that they were overcome an
had nothing more that they could inflict u])on her. They were amaze
that she continued to breathe after her whole body was pierced and tor
asunder. In the midst of her sufferings, as she for a moment revived, sh
repeatedly exclaimed, ' I am a Christian ; no wickedness is carried o
by us!"'
124
PERPETUA AND PELICITAS.
Martyred A. D. 202.
THE LADY AND THE SLAVE OF CARTHAGE.
(r^sr*rzS^
^HHE fifth general persecution of the Christians was raised by Septimius
^Ife Severus in 202. Among the Christians seized at Carthage were
the two above named. Their martyrdom is among the most touch-
ing events of church history.
Perpetua was a lady of rank. Her father was a pagan, but had a deep
affection for his daughter, though she had become a Christian. He visited
her in prison and pleaded with her to renounce her faith. He knelt weep-
ing at her feet and besought her to have pity on his gray hairs and her
own babe which she held to her breast. Though deeply moved, she would
not turn from Christ. When she was brought before the judge he en-
treated her to ** sacrifice for the posterity of the emperors." " I will not,"
she answered. ''Are you then a Christian?" "I am," was the firm
reply.
Sentence was passed upon her and Felicitas. They were to be exposed
to the wild beasts. On the way b^k to prison, Perpetua asked for her
•^behut the father refused her.
The festival of (ieta was approaching, at which time shows were given
^or the amusement of the soldiers. The condemned Christians were kept
^'•r that (lay. At the time appointed, Perpetua and Felicitas left the
pn.son for the amphitheater. Perpetua sang as one who has concjuered.
1 hey were stripi)ed, put into nets, and exposed to a wild cow. But even
thebruUil audience counted this indecent. The executioner witluirew them
^"ni the arena, gave them loose garments and led them hack again. After
^hey had been tossed and torn by the wild creatures they were dragged to
^"^gate to be dispatched. The bloodthirsty crowd called for them to hi-
Nain in the sight of all. They were again led to the arena. Lady and
^*^\Q jr^\^ each other the kiss of peaci'. They were sisters because
Christians. The executioner's sword ended their earthly existence, but
n^t their influence. In after time a yearly festi\al was held in their honor
^t Canhage.
125
JULIA MAMNIAEA.
A. D. 295.
MOTHER OF ALEXANDER SEVERUS.
Julia MAMM^A, afterwards famous as Julia Domna, became the
I wife of Lucius Scptimius Severus between 185 and 190 A. D. She
^^ had two sons, Alexander (known as Caracalla) and Geta. The for-
mer succeeded to the throne after the murder of Elagabalus.
Julia trained her son for the throne and did it well, for he proved to be
a ruler of noble character and administrative ability. His reign of thirteen
years was a calm in the storm, an oasis in the' desert, a pure breeze in a
fetid atmosphere, a pause in the downward rush of Roman degeneracy, and
for most of this the world is indebted to his mother, Julia. Hers was the
power behind the throne.
Under the counsel of his mother, Alexander encouraged a general reform
in all departments of his government. To the shame of Rome be it related
that one of the causes leading to his death was the enmity aroused by his
attempt to eliminate corruption from civil and military circles. He con-
ciliated the professors of Christianity by adopting the golden rule and hav-
ing it inscribed in letters of gold in many parts of his palace.
In his private cliapel he had statues of the virtuous and great of all times
and countries, to which he offered divine honors ; Abraham and Jesus were
among these.
He was, of course, not a Christian, for he openly professed the religion
of the state, which was pagan. It is uncertain whether Julia was a Chris-
tian, though she was much interested in the person and work of Origen, the
famous Christian scholar.
Alexander and his mother were assassinated while on a campaign in
(icnnany to drive back the invaders. The mother tried to save her son as
the assassins entered the tent to slay him. She received the death blow,
but it did not save him. As \\q have intimated, they were the martyrs of
the reforms they instituted. The corrupt soldiery was unaccustomed to the
leadership of a pure and wise sovereign.
126
HELENA.
A. B. SA0^S7.
MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.
—- »— *-- €^-
^^HE varied and romantic career of this woman has in it the materials
®l fe for a most interesting historical novel. She was the daughter of an
obscure innkeeper; but of her nationality nothing certain is known.
Constantius Chlorus met her, loved her, and married her. Constantine
was born to them about 272, probably in Britain.
Constantius became co-emperor by appointment of Diocletian, and by
him was comf>elled, for political reasons, to divorce Helena and marry the
daughter of Maximilian. By this cruel act Helena was repudiated and sent
back from the court splendors to an obscure and lonely life.
In time, the co-emperors died, and her son Constantine won his way to
the throne, and dispensed with any imperial colleagues. He sought out
his mother, restored to her the imperial dignity, gave her the title oi
Augusta, and caused her to be received at court with all the honor due the
rooiher of an emperor.
The conversion of Constantine marks an epoch in the world's history.
He adopted Christianity as the religion of state, a mar\ clous contrast to
^he attempt of his predecessor, Diocletian, to utterly extc-rniinate it. Pef-
'H.'cutions were now at an end. Constantine, by circular letter, urged his
^ub]t*cts to follow the example of their sovereign, and become Christians.
He did not forbid paganism, but he sought by ridicule and neglect to cause
j^^ dedine.
HLs mf)ther, Helena, became a Christian, and was e\erywhere loved for
"^rlilKTality. During a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she claimed to have dis-
<^overtd the holy sef)ulchre and the true cross. She relit ved the poor, the
*:dfms, and the orphans, built churches, and showed herself the worthy
niother of a great son.
At her death he paid her the highest honors. Her hodx- was siiU to
R^^me and placed in the tomb of the emperors. He made her native vil-
^^J^e a monument to her memory by raising it to the rank of a city, and
^ve it the name Helenopolis.
127
ZENOBIA.
A. D. «73.
THE CELEBRATED QUEEN OF PALMYRA.
PALMYRA, the ''City of Palms," was situated in an oasis of the
Arabian Desert at the junction of two caravan routes and was a
community of merchant princes. The wealth of the city was ac-
cordingly great, and its architecture of unusual splendor.
Odenatus, the husband of Zenobia, had taken up arms for the Roman
government and had defended the frontier against the aggressions of the
Persian monarch. For this he was recognized as a colleague of the Roman
emperor and was given the title of Augustus.
Odenatus was afterwards slain and Zenobia assumed the reins of gov-
ernment. She is described as "of great beauty, unblemished virtue, lofty
ambition, and having the power of ruling her subjects with combined mild-
ness and justice." She was herself a worshiper of one God, but all forms
of religion were tolerated by her; Christian, Jew, Pagan, and Mazdean lived
together in peace.
For her prime minister she chose Longinus the Greek philosopher,
who was the leading literary man of the Greeks in this century.
Zenobia aspired to be a ruler independent of the Roman emperor. She
already ruled Egypt and half of Asia Minor, but she was willing to be
subordinate to no one. She and her subjects revolted. Aurelian marched
against Palmyra. The forces of Zenobia were defeated in two battles and
then the city was besieged and taken. The people were shown no mercy,
but fell as the victims of their queen's ambition.
Zenobia was taken to Rome as a captive. She was obliged to walk
in the triumphal procession, her beautiful figure fettered by ponderous
manacles of gold. She was held by chains of gold so heavy that it was
necessary for a slave to walk by her side and support them. Her con-
queror rode behind her in a triumphal car drawn by four elephants.
Later, by a most unusual leniency, she was allowed to have a splendid
dwelling of her own, where she reared her children and sought to imitate
the virtues of Cornelia, the Roman matron.
128
AGNKS AND AN ASTASIA.
Martyred A. D. 303.
MARTYRS IN THE DIOCLETIAN PERSECUTION.
YTTHIJE Diocletian was noted as an organizer and ruler, he became
\j^ notorious as the instigator of the "tenth persecution." By his
order, in 303, churches were torn down, sacred writings were
ordered to be given up and destroyed, all assemblies of Christians were
prohibited, Christians in public office were remox ed from their positions,
•indall were subject to torture. The emperor's purpose was to exterminate
the Christian religion.
Ajjnes and Anastasia were two of the many who suffered death as a
n->uli of the bloody edict. Agnes was a young maiden of wealth and
^^<iuty. and many of the young noblemen sought her in marriage, but she
rehbed them all on the ground that she had devoted her life to the service
^»i Christ. Her suitors accused her to the governor, expecting that threats
and torture would cause her to give up her religion. She was entreated
and threatened by the judge, and the instruments of torture were shown
"fr. She was then commanded to sacrifice to the idols, i)ut she steadfastly
rf!!iNe<I. yiie enraged judge then ordered her to hv beheaded.
Apastasia's father was a pagan, but her mt)ther was a Christian. The
Strath of her mother was a sad blow. Her father compelled her to marry a
K'an. Her husband, finding that she was a Christian, treated her cruelly
•ind squandered her property. In a few years he (Ii(xl, and .\nastasia de-
^'>t(tj htTMtlf to works of charity, using what remained of her fortune in
rdicvinir the poor Christians, many of whom were in prison. Her works
'•^citeil suspicion. .She and three female ser\ ants were arrested, and rom-
"^ar.ded to s;icritice to idols. This they refused to do. The servants were
'^ecuted at once. Anastasia was banished for a time, init subsequently
'*a5hrought back to Rome and burned alive.
Christians died, but Christianity li\ed r)n and j^rew under persecution.
I^odetian abdicated in 305. In 311 was issued the edict ol universal
toleration.
129
NONA.
A. D. 330.
MOTHER OF GREGORY NAZIANZEN.
^^ REGORY was a great theologian, a poet of much ability, and the
1®^ greatest orator the Eastern Church produced. He was a champion
of the orthodox faith, and was made Bishop of Constantinople in
the reign of Theodosius the Great.
In his earlier years his friends sought to prevail upon him to settle at
Athens as a teacher of eloquence, but he gave all his powers to the service
of Christ, renounced the usual enjoyments of life, lived on the plainest fare,
filled the day with labor, and the night with praying, singing, and holy
contemplation.
To the mother, Nona, is due much of the credit of the great and noble
life of Gregory. By her prayers and holy life she brought about the conver-
sion of her husband, who, without faith, simply worshiped a supreme being.
Like Hannah of old she consecrated her son to the service of God before
his birth. **She solved the difficult problem of uniting a higher culture
and strict exercise of devotion with the practical care of her household."
She had unbounded confidence in the power of believing prayer, and
she exercised the power most diligently. Gregory says of his mother,
that '* by prayer she attained such control over her spirit, that in every
sorrow she (Micountered she never uttered a plaintive tone before she had
thanked God." The loving son also celebrates her extraordinary liberality
and self-denying love for the poor and sick.
At a great age, in the church which her husband had built almost
entirely with his own means, she died holding fast to the altar with one
hand, while with the other raised to heaven she exclaimed, " Be gracious to
me, O Christ my King ! " Great was the sorrow, especially among those
whom she had l>efriended.
Gregory, in one of his poems, praising her life of piety and victorious
death, writes : —
*' Bewail, O mortals, the mortal race; ^
But when one dies, like Nona, prayiuj^^ then weep I not."
130
a®
AUGUSTINE ANU HIS MOTHER.
•o<^o»
ReprDducBd frnrn the painting of Ary Schef-
Ibt, the eminent historical and portrait painter,
This picture was executed during Scheffer's
prime, and has received very wide cammenda-
tinn nn account of Its religious significance, ThE
original is in the Lauvra, Paris.
-og^JIf)
AU(;USTINK AM) HIS MOTHKK, M(JNICA.
MONICA.
A. I>. 382-387.
MOTHER OF ST. AUGUSTINE.
fTX HIS remarkable woman is numbered amon^ the mothers of great
-1- men. Her son, St. Augustine, became the fr»remost of the Latin
Fathers. The church and the world owe to Monica a great debt, for
Hfiviiig to them her brilliant, holy, and mighty son. There were long years
of agonizing heartaches and ceaseless prayer, but the victory came at last.
Monica vras of Christian parents whose home was at Tagasta in north
Africa. She was married to Patricus, an idohiter, who pro\'ed to be of
violent temper and licentious habits. But he never heard an impatient or
reproachful word in his home.
Sometime before his death, Patricus forsook his evil ways and became
a »ncere Christian. Thus wen- the j)rayers and ])atience of Monica re-
warded.
But there was another burden on her heart. Her son Augustine, whose
Ktnius had kindled the fond hr>pes of father and mother, was sent t<^
Carthage for further study. His mother brgged him to lead a jnuc life in
the midst of the dangers and dissipations of a vire.ii city. In his writings,
Augustine confesses that h<* listened impatiently and counted it mere wo-
nun talk which he would hr ashamed to heed. Monica mourned o\er him
'*ilh yearning grief.
L'pon his return his blasj)hemies so shocked her that sh<r could no
^'ngcr allow him under her roof. But she prayed without ceasini^. A cer-
tain bishop was urged by her to come and argue with Ikt son. He de-
dined. She entreated him with tears. He replied. " C'ontinur as you
^vc begun ; surely the son of so many tear-^ canii(»t j»erish. "
Augastine at thirty had exhausted the dissipations «)f Africa and went
i'' Rome to find new forms of sin. Monica l«»lloW((l him and aft<r a time
■'und him a changed man. The struggle had bet n loniL^ ;nid bitter.
Monica's closing years were filled with joy at seeing the great powers of
H*T son wholly given to the ser\ ice of God. His writings bear constant
'estimony to her character.
133
PAULA.
A. D. 347-404.
EARLY FRIEND OF EDUCATION AND PHILANTHROPY.
-^-He-<^
/T\HIS illustrious saint was of noble Roman birth, being descended from
JL the Scipios and the Gracchi. She was born in luxury and Hved in
great magnificence, being considered one of the richest women of
antiquity. She moved in the very highest circles of society in an aristo-
cratic age. She is said to have owned a whole city in Italy.
Her natural gifts and education were in keeping with her fortune and
social position.
Christianity had become the religion of state, having been made such
by Constantine, who died ten years before Paula w^as born. With her, the
religion of Jesus was not alone of the state, but of the heart. With her, it
was not merely a form, but a life, an enthusiastic and passionate life. The
scholars of the Church made her palace their home. She became the
patroness of educational and philanthropic work.
Paula is known to the world as the disciple and friend of the noted
scholar Jerome, whose monumental work was the translation of the entire
Bible into the Latin tongue. This version is known as the Vulgate. From
it the modern Catholic Bible, the Douay version, is translated.
Upon the death of her husband, Toxotius, Paula put aside her luxurious
living and devoted herself rigidly to study, prayer, and works of charity.
She lived as the poorest slave, but gave as a princess. Her desire was to
die in beggary and be buried in a shroud which did not belong to her.
With other kindred spirits she journeyed to Antioch, Jerusalem, and
Egypt, and finally settled at Bethlehem, where she built a monastery, hos-
pital, and three nunneries. Jerome presided over the monastery and carried
on his literary work.
In Paula we have a noble example of the Christian friendship of woman
for man. Jerome and Paula renounced and despised the pleasures and even
the comforts of the world. Teacher and pupil, they were co-workers in
promoting monastic life, which at first was a protest against the indulgence
and corruption of the age.
134
OLYMPIAS.
A. D. 391.
GAVE HER LIFE AND WEALTH TO CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPY.
OLYMPIAS was the daughter of a wealthy lord belonging to the court
of Theodosius the Great, and was married to the emperor's treas-
urer. She was early left a widow, and, owing to her wealth and
beauty, was sought in marriage by many of the noblemen. She refused
them all, among them a relative of the emperor. This so displeased him,
that her property was taken from her and placed in the hands of a city offi-
cial of Constantinople, with orders that he act as her guardian.
Her calm response reveals her character. ' ' Your goodness toward me
has been that of an emperor and a bishop, in thus relieving me from the
heavy burden of my property. Add to that goodness by dividing my
wealth between the poor and the Church. I have long been seeking a fit
opportunity to avoid the vanity of making the distribution myself, as well
as of attaching my heart to perishable goods instead of keeping it fixed on
tbi? true riches." The emperor, somewhat ashamed of himself, and in
admiration for the noble minded woman, caused her property to be given
back.
She was a princess in liberality. The sick, the prisoners, beggars, and
wile> were as her children. She purchased hundreds of slaves, and set
them free. She gave not only her means but herself to the work of relief.
She was a devoted friend of John Chrysostoni, the greatest commentator
♦inil preacher of the Greek Church. Chrysostom was i)anis]ie(l for having
roused the anger of the empress Rudoxia by his unsparing sermons. She
'•^as young and l)eautiful, despised her husband, and inckilged her passions.
^hr\sostom denounced her as a new Herodias thirsting for the blood of
Many of Chrysostom' s followers also suffered, among them Olympias.
^w lost all her pro[>erty, was grossly insulted by the soldiers, dragged
Wore the courts, and died in sadness and j)o\ crty.
Chrysostom addressed to her many letters. One of these contains an
<'Xtended account of his sufferings and faith.
135
HYPATIA.
Martyred A. D. 416.
THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER OF ALEXANDRIA.
rtjTYPATIA stands as one of the most remarkable women of antiquity,
1 1 and she was famous in an unusual line, that of philosophy. Her
father, Theon, was at the head of the Platonic school at Alexandria
and was noted for his philosophic attainments, but his fame and name are
preserved to us more on his daughter's account than on his own. She was
his devoted pupil and his very life passed over into hers. She made as-
tonishing progress in all branches of learning and soon surpassed her father
and all other philosophers in their special pursuits.
She succeeded her father as head of the Alexandrine school. Pupils
came from all parts of the Roman empire and eagerly listened to the beauti-
ful and learned woman.
She was considered an oracle of wisdom, and magistrates consulted her
on many important cases. Men gathered about her in great numbers.
Probably no woman was ever more praised and petted than she. In the
midst of it all she maintained a modest reserve. Her mind was too
thoroughly trained to lose its perfect poise through vanity.
Orestes was governor of Alexandria and Cyril was bishop. Orestes
frequently consulted Hypatia as did other leading men and naturally
admired her. The bishop disliked Orestes and was bitterly intolerant of
Hypatia' s philosophy. He is credited with having incited the mob to an
attack on the governor. Feeling became so intense on the part of the
bishop's followers when it was rumored that Hypatia had prevented a rec-
onciliation between the two men, that some conspirators, headed by one
Peter, waylaid the noble woman, dragged Ikt from her carriage into a
church, stripped her naked, killed her with broken tiles, tore her body in
pieces and then burned the remains to ashes. Thus was Hypatia a martyr
to philosophy, suffering at the hands of a mob. Cyril was the intolerant
and bigoted instigator. When he became bishop, one of his first acts
was to lead a mob and drive out the Jews from Alexandria, though for
centuries they had enjoyed many privileges.
136
PULCHBRIA AND EUDOCIA.
A. D. 400-403.
SISTER AND WIFE OF EMPEROR THEODOSIUS !I.
0F Pulcheria, Gibbon, the historian, says : * * She alone, among all the
descendants of the great Theodosius, appears to have inherited any
share of his manly spirit and abilities." Her father, Arcadius, died
when she was but nine years of age. Theodosius II. was about one year
younger. A child in years, she soon showed herself to be a woman in
wisdom. She became learned beyond the women of her time, could use
the Latin and Greek tongues with elegance and effectiveness. She dressed
simply, lived frugally, and, withal, was a devout Christian.
She and her brother Theodosius were joint rulers, but, owing to her
superior abilitic*s, she governed both the state and him. She sought to
give him the best possible instruction, but she could not give him taste or
capacity. He could hunt, paint, carve, and transcribe manuscripts, but for
the science of government he cared little.
She sought a wife for her brother and found one in the person of
Athenais, daughter of^a heathen sophist of Athens. He had left his for-
tune to his sons, declaring of his daughter, that " her learning and beauty
*trtin themselves a sufficient fortune."
Driven out by her brothers, she came to Constantinople and appealed
to the empress. Pulcheria was so impressed with her accom|)lishments,
tliat she decided upon her for a sister-in-law. The beauty of Athenais
^^'iptivated Theodosius, as her ambition had Pulcheria. She became a
^^.ristian under Pulcheria's instruction, was married to Tlieodosius in 421,
^n^i was raised to the rank of Augusta. She was gi\en the new name of
F-U(l»»cia.
Her brothers she not only forgave, but raised to the dignity of consuls
and prefects.
She paraphrased in verse the first eight books of the Old Testament,
*^ the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah. In 428 she made a pilgrim-
^^ to Jerusalem marked by showy magnificence. In Jerusalem she
^*came infected with the Eutychian heresy, and through her influence it
137
PULCHERIA AND EUDOCIA.
made considerable progress in Syria, but the misfortunes of her daughter
Licinia led her to obtain a reconciliation with the Church. At Antioch
she delivered an oration seated on a golden throne. Her return to Con-
stantinople was a triumph.
Her influence superseded that of Pulcheria over Theodosius. He paid
no heed to affairs of state. He did not even read the state documents
which he signed. His sister, to rouse him from indolence, prepared a
document, which he signed without reading, in w^hich he sold to her his
wife. The emperor soon afterward sent for his wife, who was in his sister* s
apartment. Pulcheria refused to allow her to come, and showed him the
paper in which he had sold to her his wife, to be a slave. The lesson did
not please the emperor, and greatly offended his wife.
Pulcheria was at length banished, and Eudocia sought to rule the
empire, but disorder followed. Theodosius became jealous of his wife, and
publicly separated from her. The cause of his jealousy, it is said, was on
account of his observing a beautiful apple which he had presented to her
in the hands of Paulinus, his master of the offices. The execution of Pau-
linus did not appease the anger of the emperor, but Eudocia was stripped
of her royal honors, and degraded in the eyes of the nation.
She made a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she died. With
latest breath she protested that she had never transgressed the bounds of
innocence and friendship with her supposed favorites.
Pulcheria was restored to her old place and power. Theodosius died in
450, and his sister was unanimously proclaimed Empress of the East.
After the death of her brother, she married Marcianus, not from choice,
but for the good of the empire, and raised him to the rank of Augustus.
Pulcheria still held the reins of government, although Marcianus was the
nominal emperor.
She is said to have been ' ' the first woman to whose publicly recognized
sway the Romans submitted." Gibbon, the historian, says of her : *' The
piety of a Christian virgin was adorned by the zeal and liberality of an
empress." With all the cares of the empire, she was a mother to the poor
and suffering, and at her death she left her possessions to be used for them.
138
GENEVIEVE.
A. D. 423-fiOl.
HER COURAGE SAVED THE CITY OF PARIS.
■■iitt<»&$<
1^ ENEVlfeVE has the honorable distinction of having saved the city of
^--A Paris. She was born at Nanterre, near Paris, or, according to
another tradition, at Montriere.
The Huns were one of the strange and savage hordes which came
from central Asia, unforeseen and unaccountable as a flight of locusts.
Terror was before them, and devastation behind them. They were of the
Tartar race, small, dark-hued, and hideous. They rode small, nimble
horses — in fact, they seemed to live on horseback.
At the time of Genevieve, Attila was their leader. For some years they
had been kept beyond the Danube, but at length they came down upon the
Western world like a deluge of death. Attila was the most ferocious of
slayers and plunderers. His track was marked everywhere by fire and
UockI. He made no pretension to building anything. He had no desire
10 set up a government of his owi^. He announced himself as the * ' Exter-
minator of Nations. ' ' He fought for the mere lust of plunder.
When it was known that Attila and his murderous horde were approach-
ing Paris, the people were panic-stricken, and as by a common impulse were
<ib«jut to tlee from the city. But there was one, and that one a woman, who
Had no fear. She plead with the people as well as witli God. Her faith
^'<1 courage calmed them. They stood by their city, and it was saved.
Her reputation for sanctity was so great, that people of other lands
■n<|uir('d concerning her of every one who came from Gaul.
Her death occurred in 501, or according to another account in 512.
^<>vb. 465-511, erected the church of St. Genevieve in her memory.
T^e famous Pantheon of Paris now contains her tomb.
It Ls related of her, that when, in her earlier years, Childeric, King of the
Franks, lx*sieged Paris, she went boldly out at the head of a brave little
^(i. to procure provisions, and brought back boats laden with corn for
thestar\ing citizens. Childeric, though a foe and a heathen, respected the
\Mfus and patriotic maiden.
139
KABIOLA.
d. A. D. 400.
FOUNDER OF THE FIRST HOSPITAL IN ROME.
^ HIS woman was not noted for her wealth or learning, but she was
\j^ wondrously rich in good deeds. She lived in a city of Iuxur>' and
T magnificence, which had also the terrible contrasts of want and
squalor. The rich who had money to spend for the people provided licen-
tious amusements, with occasional ostentatious distributions of grain.
Fabiola gave herself untiringly to ministration among the suffering
She dressed wounds and sores which others would not or could not touch.
No ser\ ice was too lowly. She had caught the spirit and walked in the
steps of her Lord.
It should be related also of her that her first husband was a heathen,
and a licentious man. From him she was divorced and married another.
After the death of her second husband, she was told that her second mar-
riage, though legal, was contrary to the teachings of Christ. For this, she
showed the deepest penitence, and it may have been this in part which led
her to forsake the world and devote her remaining years to works of charity
and philanthropy.
Toward the close of her life she gathered together what little remained
of her property, and, uniting it with that of the son-in-law of her friend
Paula, they erected a hos[)ital. In this she died in the year 400.
Jerome, in celebrating her virtues, declared that ** she was the praise of
the Christians, the wonder of the Gentiles, the mourning of the poor, and
the consolation of the monks."
As soon as the early Christians were free to practice their religion
openly, they began to build charitable institutions, asylums for infants and
for orphans, hospitals for the sick, and retreats for strangers, especially
pilgrims.
The hosj)itals of the early Church were divided according to sex. The
male portion was placed under the charge of a deacon, and the women
under the charge of deaconesses. Deacon and deaconesses went out and
§ought for the sick of all classes, and brought them to the hospitals.
140
e®
R ROMAN HDUnniR.
.©♦o.
ReproducBd from the painting of the Russiac
artiet, Hendrik Siamiradzki, "whnsB " Nbtd's
Torches," " Nubian FnrtunB TellBr/' and" Sward
DancB" mads him famnus. SiBmiradzki was a
pupil nf thB St. PstBrsburg AcadBm/ and also of
Piloty in Munich. Kr has raceivBd medals
from thB ViBnna, HBrliUi and Pans Salans.
c^jva^
A ROMAN BOUDOIR.
KROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
TO THE
FALL OF ROME.
P
T the beginnin)^ of what we call the Christian era, the Roman empire
was the world, and Auj^ustus Ciesar was the political master of that
world. He was not anxious to make a display of monarchical
power, but kept up the forms of the old republican govern-
ment. There was the senate, but it simply voted as Auj^us-
tus wished, and magistrates were appointed as he directed.
He had the substance, if not the show, of supreme power.
This world of Augustus's was bounded on the north by the British Chan-
nel, the North Sea, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Black .Sea : on the
east by the Euphrates and the Desert of .Syria; on the south by the Desert
of Sahara, and on the west by the .Atlantic Ocean. The empire was nearly
three thousand niik*s in extent from east to west, and one thousand miles
from north to south.
The divisions c»f the empire were Italy, and tweiity-se\en pro\ inces,
Riled by the appointees of the emperor or the senate.
Two languages prevailed. Local dialects remained, but theCireek lan-
guage was the language of conmierce and of |)olite intercourse in all j)laces.
The Greek language and (ireek culture were the pr«»|)ert\ of all. West of
the Adriatic the Latin was more generally spoken than the (ireek. It was
the language of the courts and the cam|)s. for the laws were in Latin, and
military' officers were quite generall\ fn»m It.iiy.
There was a standing army of ^^40. (hm). which .\ugustus conmianded
absolutely. Decisions of peace and war nsted uitii tin t niperor, or im-
jxrrator, as he was called.
'* r)f people there were probably ai>out kh ..«m k .,«)<h> in tin \ast empire
ruled by Augustus, and not less than 50.(xx\«hw3 of these were in a condi-
tion of slavery. Of the (»ther half, but a small j>orti(»n enjoytii tiie rights
of ' citizens.' "
148
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
Rome was the capital of this empire, a city of 2,500,000 population,
inclosed by twenty miles of massive walls. Augustus boasted that he found
the city brick and left it marble.
He and his successors erected theaters, public baths, and provided costly
amusements, and caused the people to forget that they had lost their polit-
ical liberty.
But the Augustan period was the golden age of Roman literature. Lit-
erary men were patronized by the rich, who collected large libraries, and
literary works were the topic of conversation in society. Philosophers,
poets, historians, and law writers found ready sale for their works. Scribes
who multiplied copies of the works were found in great numbers. Travel
from part to part of the empire was facilitated by the splendid Roman
roads, many of which endure to the present time. The age of Augustus
was a time of peace, though of course an " armed peace.**
From the time of Augustus, the history of Rome is not that of the peo-
ple, but of the emperors. Of the sixty-two from Caesar to Constantine,
forty-two were murdered, three committed suicide, two abdicated or were
forced to abdicate, one was killed in rebellion, one was drowned, one died
in war, one died, it is not known how, and not more than eleven died a
natural death.
It will be of interest to sketch briefly a few of the men succeeding Au-
gustus. None of the early emperors was followed by his own son, but, ac-
cording to the Roman law of adoption, they all counted as
Hmperors Caesars. Nero was the last one to be connected with Augus-
tus, even by adoption, though the emperors continued to call
themselves Ccesar and Augustus, throughout the existence of the empire.
Augustus was succeeded by his adopted step-son Tiberius, who for a
time ruled with comparative mildness. But he was naturally jealous and
cruel and these traits soon broke out into action. He had a bodyguard of
10,000 men which he could use in any way he chose. He usurped the
right to put to death without trial. Kvery attempt against him was made
high treason. A word could be construed to mean hostility, and was pun-
ished by the confiscation of property and death.
Tiberius became one of the most gloomy and vicious tyrants. He at
144
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
length placed the government in the hands of Sejanus, commander of his
bodyguard, and retired to Capreae, where he gave himself up to the most
cruel and disgusting debaucheries.
Sejanus killed several members of the royal household at Rome and was
found to be plotting for the throne. Tiberius was more than ever filled
with terror and suspicion. A massacre followed in which hundreds of men,
women, and children perished. But the world at last breathed freer when
the profligate monster was slain by a member of his own household.
Caligula followed. Mild and generous at first, he soon became a verita-
We demon of cruelty and vice. He was especially fond of witnessing the
tortures of human beings. He was wildly extravagant and quickly drained
the public treasury. His conduct even exasperated his soldiers and after
reigning but four years he was killed by two of his own bodyguard.
Qaudius, the next emperor, was uncle to Caligula. He was of a retir-
ing and studious disposition, but was most unfortunate in his marriage
relations. Other emperors had robbed noblemen of their
ciAstftvs wives, but Claudius's wife Messalina added a new feature to
the sins of her time. She caused Caius Silius to repudiate
hb own beautiful and virtuous wife and compelled the emperor to sign a
Cfjntract sanctioning her own union with the "divorced" man. She pro-
ceixled to a beautiful villa with her guilty lover, where, with a courtly train
of youths and maidens, was enacted the mythological drama of the union
of Bacchus and Ariadne, with all its licentiousness. This was too much for
e\en the degenerate morals of Rome and both Silius and Messalina were
>lain by the soldiers. The death of Messalina was announced to the
emperor while at dinner, but he did not allow it to interrupt his gluttonous
and drunken repast.
The next matrimonial venture of Claudius was the union with his niece
Ajjrippina. She too was unfaithful to him and laid plans to secure the
throne for Nero, her son by a former marriage. (Her character and career
^^^ sketched elsewhere in this book. ) She took care to secure for herself
tHt: support of the army by courting po|)ularity with the soldiers. In mili-
ary spectack»s she took a conspicuous part seated by the emperor's side
^d she caused her face to be associated with his on the coinage. When
145
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
Agrippina thought he had lived long enough she caused him to be poi-
soned with mushrooms, a favorite delicacy of his table. It may have been
an overdose. He vomited and the drug failed to do its work. Agrippina
hastily secured the services of a physician who thrust a poisoned feather
down his throat under pretense of assisting him. So died Claudius.
In Latin literature there is a burlesque on Claudius by Seneca, which is
counted the wittiest production of ancient times. It opens with the sup-
posed arrival of Claudius in the other world to claim the family honors of
being enrolled * * in the quiet order of the gods. * ' He is ushered into the
presence of the assembled deities, and announced to Jupiter as a quidam^ a
creature of extraordinary and bloated size, with white hair and shaking
head, dragging his right foot after him, and muttering only confused and
incolierent sounds. When asked whence he came he answers he does not
know, in sounds so inarticulate as not to be recognized as Latin, Greek, or
any other known tongue. Jupiter, completely puzzled, calls Hercules, who
is a great traveler and is supposed to know the dialects of all nations. But
he, looking upon the creature, declares it a monster, a product of the sea.
The disgusting ghost is at length recognized as the emperor Claudius.
Jupiter addresses the "Conscript Father of Olympus" on the advis-
ability of admitting this new arrival to divine honors. He jestingly de-
clares him as worthy of the honor as many of his predecessors, and he is,
at least, of the blood of Augustus. This brings Augustus to his feet, who
delivers a protest, which is at the same time a character sketch of Claudius.
"Conscript Father," he exclaimed, "was it for this that I put an end to
civil bloodshed, and gave peace to the world ? Was it for this that I recon-
stituted Rome by my laws and ornamented it with my works ? I want
words to express my indignation. Here is a wretch without the courage to
drive away a fly, who has yet dared to slay men as lightly as he would fling
the dice. This creature, who so long has thriven beneath the luster of my
name, how has he shown his gratitude ? By murdering the two Julias, my
nieces, one by the sword, the other by starvation, and by killing my grand-
son, Silanus. Oh, Jupiter, take good care, lest by making this wretch a
god, you adopt his crimes as your own. Look at him, a wretched creature
made in spite ! If he can speak only three plain words consecutively, Fm
146
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
content to be his slave, and yet he forsooth must be a god. Who do you
think will worship him ? Who will believe him ? Or who do you suppose
will hereafter acknowledge your own divinities, if such are to be the
specimens of your manufacture?'*
After Claudius came the rule of Nero, whose very name causes us to
shudder. But, strange as it may seem, the first five years of his reign were
characterized by mild and humane deportment. When the
warrant for the execution of a criminal was brought him to
sign, he expressed regret that he had ever learned to write. This tender-
heartedness did not long continue. First, he poisoned Britannicus, son of
Claudius, and therefore his step-brother. Next he became enamored of
Poppaea, a woman of fierce ambition and as devoid of moral character as his
own mother. He repudiated his wife Octavia in order to secure Poppaea.
He «ras further obliged to send her husband Otho to preside over a distant
province to get him out of the way.
Octavia was put to death on false charges. Poppaea did not continue
to hold the affection of Nero, though she sought to preserve her beauty
b\ a daily bath in asses' milk. After a time he treated her brutally and she
tlied from the effects of a kick received from him.
He put to death the two men to whom he was most indebted for his
power, Seneca and Burrus.
.\lonj; with his monstrous cruelty he was a man of contemptible vanity.
He put himself forward as a musician and nothing so much pleased him as
thi* applause of the people. He wrote poems and recited them, and was
bt^ide himself with rage when he found himself surpassed by others. He
delighted to Ik? known as a charioteer and constructed a circus on his
^Tf.unds where he could show to the assembled people his skill as a driver.
Hf at length l)ecame so insanely greedy f(^r public applause, that he ap-
pwe<i r»n the stage.
His infamous distinction is that of a persecutor oi the Christians. A
JjTeat fire which consumed a large part of Rome was said to have been
*ft by the emperor's own hand out of mere wantonness. While the city
»a> burning, he s;it calmly enjoying the spectacle, while he sang verses to
the music of his lyre.
147
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
The suspicion that he was the incendiary became so uncomfortable that,
to divert the public mind, he charged the crime upon the Christians and
caused great numbers to be put to death. In the words of Tacitus, the
Latin historian, "Some were nailed to crosses, others were sewed up in
the skins of wild beasts and exposed to the fury of dogs ; others, again,
smeared over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate
the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the
melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse race and
honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the populace
in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. ' '
Christian women were mixed up with these horrible sports and name-
less indignities were inflicted on them as a part of the festivities. The
heart sickens and the brain reels at the thought of these inhuman atrocities.
Nero rebuilt the city, laying out broad streets and erecting handsome
buildings of stone in place of wooden or brick structures, but the magnifi-
cence of the city could not atone for the emperor's atrocities.
We have then glanced at the Roman world as it was politically, at the
beginning of the period with which this book is occupied.
Not all the emperors were bad and bloodthirsty. Some were notably
good and their reigns were peaceful and prosperous.
We now enumerate a few of the important changes in the empire and
point out some of the causes which led to its ruin.
We have seen that in the days of Augustus, few, outside Italy, pos-
sessed citizenship. But a nation of Romans was gradually formed in the
provinces by introducing colonies and by the expedient of
Causes of ^(^i,yji^^ing the most deserving of the provincials to the rights
of Roman citizenship.
In the reign of Caracalla, 21 1-2 17, the old distinction between Romans
and provincials was abolished and citizenship was given to all free men of
the empire. The city of Rome gradually lost a measure of its prestige
when it ceased to have a monopoly of citizenship.
Another cause which led to the loss of her proud position, was the fact
that in later times many of the emperors found it better to live near the
frontier, where they could keep watch of outside foes.
148
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
In the reigii of Diocletian (283-305), another important step was taken.
He found the empire too j^reat for one man to gc)vern successfully, and so
elevated one of his ji^enerals, Maxim ian, to equal rank with himself and
^ave to him the dominion over the western part of the empire, while he
retained the eastern portion. In addition t<» this, each look a sub- ruler,
who was de>iji^ned as his successor. Constantine was one of these sub-
rulers and he f)roved stronj^ enou^^^h to q^overn th<- whole empire. He was
not only sole ruler, but he made an important ( hanj^e. entirely abandoning
Rome as a caf)ital and establishinj^ the seat of j^jovernment at the old (ireek
city of Byzantium on the Hosphorus. He called the city New Rome, but
the name Constantinople (the city of Constantine) soon attached to it and
continues to this day.
Theodosius ( 392-395 » was the last emperor to hold toj^ether the old
Roman dominion. At his death the empire was divided between his sons.
F-'rom this time the F^ist is entirely lost to Rome, there are two distinct
empires instead of one.
The Western empire continued to exist for about eij^hty years. It is
the last act of a j^reat <lrama — we may say, trajL^edy.
The West was already in a state of decay, and fell a prey to the new and
vijiorous Teutonic or (ierman trilns which livt-d in the forests of the north.
Some twenty years before the division of the empire, the
nrcntonlc
-^_..,^^. (foths, who lived across the I>anul)<\ found themsehes hard
pressed ^y the fierce Hun>. who had swarmed in from Asia,
and they asked permi.ssion to cross the ri\er and sittle on Roman territorv.
They were told that this would br v^ranted on conilition that they jL^axe up
their arms and their children. .So ^reat was ihtir tear of tlu- in\aders that
they readily consented to the conditit»ns, and <'n>s>fd the river in boats pro-
\i<Ie<l by the Romans. There were >aid to ha\<- been a million of them.
They iifjreetl to j^uard the frontier for Rome and to this nui they must
have wea|K)ns. These were j^jiven them, but wen* ^onn used .iv^ainsl the
Romans. They receiveil a check under Theodosius theCireat. and many
of them entere<i the Roman army. But this w.is .1 downwanl stip. as the
ve^ult proved.
When Theodosius died, and the empire was divided between his two
149
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
sons, the Western Goths or Visigoths revolted, elected their chief as king,
and swept down upon Italy. They captured and sacked Rome in 410.
This, however, is not counted the fall of Rome. Pieces of the empire began
to break off. Britain was lost to them. Roman troops were withdrawn,
and Germanic tribes (Angles and Saxons) came in. These tribes pushed
down into Gaul and Spain, and even across into the Roman possessions in
Africa. One of these tribes was the Vandals, whose deeds of destruction
have given to the world the word vandalism.
These Vandals crossed over from Africa, captured Rome, and for many
days plundered and wrecked the stately buildings and art treasures of the
once imperial city (455). The poor fragment of the empire continued
under feeble rulers for another score of years, when the city was again cap-
tured, and Odoacer, a chief of the German^, became ruler. Then, ** when
Odoacer was proclaimed King of Italy, the phantom assembly that still
called itself the Roman Senate sent back to Constantinople the tiara and
purple robe, in sign that the Western Empire had passed away."
During all the time when the Roman Empire was declining from a terri-
tory one thousand miles by three thousand miles, to the little province of
Italy ; and from the glory of the golden age of Augustus to the barbaric
brass of Teutonic rule, there was another power steadily rising, which was
designed by its Founder to be world wide in its sweep, yet not of this world.
And that Founder, and that empire, emancipated woman. We refer to
Jesus Christ and His religion.
Having sketched the political history of the Roman Empire as the neces-
sary background and foundation, we proceed to consider the moral, social,
and religious conditions of the empire and their relations to woman.
During the days of the empire, marriage came to be looked upon as a
mere civil contract, entered into for the happiness of the contracting parties.
Either party might dissolve it at will, and the dissolution gave
Social
Conditions ^^^^ parties a right to remarry. This system treated the
obligations of marriage with levity, and almost contempt.
Cicero repudiated his wife Terentia, because he wanted a new dowry.
Terentia had brought him a considerable fortune, but this having been ex-
pended, the easiest way to get more seemed to be to marry a new wife.
150
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
Maecenas, the great statesman and patron of literature, was continually
changing his wives.
Sempronius Sophus repudiated his wife because she had once been to
the public games without his knowledge.
Paulus Emilius put away his wife without giving any reason, simply
saying, * * My shoes are new and well made, but no one knows where they
pinch me.''
Roman women were as much lost to shame as the men. Seneca the
philosopher said there were women who reckoned their years by their hus-
bands and not by the consuls. Martial speaks of a woman who had come
to her tenth husband. Juvenal tells of a woman who had eight husbands
in five years. St. Jerome declared that there was a woman in Rome who
was married to her twenty-third husband, she herself being his twenty-first
wife. Augustus compelled the husband of Livia to repudiate her, that he
might marr>' her himself. Cato gave his wife, with the consent of her
father, to his friend Hortensius, and remarried her after his death.
There were faithful wives and lifelong marriages . and pure love and
happy households, but these examples show the base depths to which public
opinion and moral conditions had fallen.
As a somewhat natural result of loose and frequent marriages, or no
marriages at all, infanticide was fearfully prevalent. There are illustrations
in Latin literature of the prevalence of killing or exposing:
laOuitlcltfe * SIS
newborn babes. In one of Terence's plays he represents a
tather, upon going away, charging the mother to destroy the babe if it
prove to be a girl. The mother in the pity of her heart gives it to an old
*'oman to be exposed, in the hope that some one might take it. Upon the
iaiher's return he upbraids the wife for being not only disobedient, but un-
rosonahle, for she has consigned her dauj^hter to a life of shame.
The fact is, many of the exposed children died, but at length they be-
c^nie so numerous that they were systematically gathered up and sold by
'speculators to be educated as slaves or prostitutes. Some were maimed
^nd trained as professional beggars whose gains went to the purses of their
>'ile owners.
We shrink from looking deeper into the awhil pit of Roman iniquity.
161
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
We cannot wonder that Rome fell. The marvel is that the rotten structure
stood so long.
Strange as it may seem, the morals of the barbarians who conquered
Rome were vastly superior to those of the Romans. The Teutonic senti-
ment in woman's favor is seen in very stern legislation against attempts on
her chastity.
A law of the Spanish Visigoths prohibited a surgeon from bleeding any
free woman except in the presence of her husband or some near relative or
other properly appointed person.
A Salic law imposed a fine of fifteen pieces of gold upon anyone who
improperly pressed a woman's hand.
Slavery was a prolific source of Rome's degradation. As we have seen
elsewhere, about fifty million of Rome's population were in bondage.
Wealthy men counted their slaves by hundreds or even thousands. Many
of these were Greeks and highly educated, though they brought Greek
vices with them. There were slaves for every department of work in the
houses of wealthy Romans. Each was a specialist, whether cook, waiter,
or scribe. Horace, the Roman poet, boasts of the simplicity of his bachelor
life, that he was waited on at table by only three slaves.
The theatrical performances with which the Romans amused themselves
were degrading beyond description. Scenes were introduced from the
licentious stories of Greek mythology. The pantomime finally came to be
the favorite and almost exclusive stage amusement. It was gross and often
obscene.
In addition to the corruption of the people of leisure, all were brutalized
by the gladiatorial games Augustus instituted, games in which ten thousand
joined in deadly conflict. He also gave an exhibition on a
Games ^*^^^ "^ ^^^^ gardens of a sea-fight in which 3,000 soldiers were
engaged. These scenes of blood and cruelty could but have
the effect of hardening the hearts of all and causing them to think lightly of
taking human life.
With stately palaces and works of art, splendid bridges and aqueducts,
and highways and vast wealth — with all her splendor of civilization, Rome
was unspeakably corrupt and growing rapidly worse. In such an atmos-
152
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
pKere, womanhood and virtue were lighdy esteemed and even held in
contempt.
Christianity was, in fact, greatly helped by the barbarians in elevating
t\\e morals of the empire. It should be stated, however, that multitudes of
ihem had become Christians, through the missionary work of the early
church, before they crossed the borders and invaded the empire.
In order to witness the effects of Christianity in the elevation of woman,
we turn to the time of Constantine and his successors. For more than
three centuries, Christianity had been at work, though under ridicule,
opposition, and persecution. At least ten great persecutioifc are enumer-
ated by historians ; and women were among the bravest of the martyrs.
The changes wrought in the reign of Constantine, especially in legisla-
tion, seem sudden, but they were simply the fruit which had been ripening
since the days of Christ and the apostles.
CkrtatiAii
ijtg%^gm»!^wk ^" ^^^ women were granted the same rights as men, to
the control of their property, except in regard to the sale of
Unded estates.
Out of regard for their modesty they were exempt from summons to
appear before a public tribunal.
In 390 Theodosius I. allowed mothers for the first time a certain right
'•i j^iardianship over their children. In 439 Theodosius II. sought to
>tamp out the vile trade of Lcnones^ who lived by prostituting women.
Criminal assault of a woman was made punishable by death. .Says Gibbon,
"The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians." There had been
^"oundless liberty of divorce since the time of Augustus, and this, as we
have seen, vastly hastened the decay of public morals. The Christians and
the church had recognized and followed the teaching of Christ, that there
could be divorce on one ground only, namely, adultery.
The Christian emperors sought to legislate for the restriction of divorce
•*nd the protection of the dignity and sanctity of marriage. The pagan
P"pulation protested with utmost vigor against the Christian standards and
the legislation was but partially successful. From the time of Constantine,
^ncubinage was prohibited and adultery was punished as one of the gross-
^t crimes.
163
FROM CHRIST TO THE FALL OF ROME.
Under the old Roman law, fathers held the power of life and death over
their children. They could be sold as slaves or killed by him, and in this,
of course, the mother had no voice. The wife in a general way occupied
the rank of sister to her own children and was thus absolutely subject to
her husband.
Under Alexander Severus, restriction had been placed upon the power
of fathers over their children, and Constantine carried the work still farther.
At last the Romans were educated or legislated up to recognize that the
killing of a child, even though but an infant, was murder.
Christianity taught that all Christians were brothers and sisters. This
had its effect upon the vast institution of slavery. Slaves were accounted
as having a spiritual equality with their masters, and were
Haman
Kqaaiity treated as capable of the same virtues, blessings, and rewards.
So, while there was no social revolution, in this line, the
attitude of the Christians put human bondage in the way of being greatly
ameliorated, and steps were taken towards its final extinction.
Women learned that they were human beings and not mere creatures ;
that they had souls capable of eternal happiness ; that they were entitled to
be associated with man in the service of God and humanity, and that, more-
over, they had a right to expect that the other sex would protect and assist
them, rather than betray and debase them to the level of the brute creation.
Women became the most devoted workers in charitable and philan-
thropic lines, and, when persecutions raged, went to the stake or the arena
as victors, absolutely refusing to deny Christ. They recognized (if some do
not now) that Christ had taken woman by the hand and raised her up to
be the friend and fellow-worker of man. Women were among his follow-
ers ; he was their Champion, and became their Saviour.
The early Christian Church held steadfastly to the standard Christ had
given in relation to woman. Rome had trampled womanly virtue under
foot, and Rome perished. Christianity honored woman. Godly wives and
mothers influenced husbands and sons, and lived for the good of the race
and the glory of Him who had emancipated them, and thus Christianity
rose upon the ruins of Rome.
154
d&^Cf^
BOOK THREE
WOMAN
DURING THE DARK AGES
FROM FALL OF ROME TO THE CRUSADES
500 TO 1100 A. D.
(g.
%
■^i\m
l^
DEATH OF BRUNEHAUT.
Reproduced from an etching after the original paintinir..
BRUNEHAUT.
A. I>. 534-613.
QUEEN OF THE AUSTRASIAN FRANKS.
BRUNEHAUT, or Bninehild, was the daughter of AthanagiIHe, king
of the Visigoths of Spain, and married, in A. 1). 565, Sigebert,
king of the Franks of Aiistrasia. Although contrary to the cus-
tom, Sigebert had resolved to have but one wife, and to choose her from a
royal family ; his choice fell on Brunehaut, who fully justified his prefer-
ence. She was beautiful, of regal bearing, modest and dignified in her
conduct, and conversed not only agreeably, but with a great deal of wis-
dom* Her husband soon became very much attached to her.
Chilperic, king of Neustria, brother of Sigebert, ha\ ing married Gal-
suinda, daughter of Athanagilde, abandoned and murdered her at the
instigation of his mistress, Fredegonda, whom he had made queen.
Brunehaut, to avenge her sister's death, persuaded Sigebert to make war
upon hb brother. The invasion was successful, but, while besieging Tour-
^y^ Sigebert was assassinated in 575 by emissaries of Fredegonda.
As soon as Brunehaut heard of this tragedy, she hastened to save her
little son Childebert« heir to the kingdom of Aiistrasia. She hid him in a
\)asket, which was let down from a window of the ])ala(H- she orcujiied in
Piiris« and confided him to a servant of the .\ustrasian duke (londebald,
*lu) carried him on horseback to Metz, where he was ])roelaime(l king on
Christmas day, 575. When Chilperic and I'redegonda arrived at Paris,
the)- found only Brunehaut, with her two <laught< is and the royal treasure.
Her property was Uiken from her. her danghtei^ were exiled to Meaux.
^d she was sent to Rouen.
During the few days that Brunehaut had reinainetl in Paris, >he had in-
spired Meroveus, Chilperic's second son, with a \inK'nt j)as.si<ui, so thai
^^T^ after she reached Rouen, he aban<lonrd tin- tmojjs his fatlur had
placed under his charge, and hastenetl l«> i«»in her Tlie) wrre married by
'he Bishop of Rouen, although it was (ontrary to the eaimn^ r.f the church
•"unite a nephew and aunt. Chilperic. t^lri^»n•^ at thi^ ^u\k came with
CTcat haste to separate them ; but they l^nk refuse in a little church, ami
157
BRUNEHAUT.
the king, not daring to violate this asylum, was at last obliged to promise
with an oath, that he would leave them together.
Reassured by this solemn promise, Meroveus and Brunehaut left their
asylum and gave themselves up to .Chilperic. At first he treated them
kindly, but in a few days returned to Soissons, taking his son with him as a
prisoner, and leaving Brunehaut under a strong guard at Rouen. Mero-
veus, after having dragged out a miserable existence as a prisoner for thir-
teen months and having in vain attempted to escape to join Brunehaut, was
killed by one of his servants ; some say by his own request and others by
order of Fredegonda.
Meanwhile, Childebert had demanded and obtained from the king of
Normandy his mother's release, and Brunehaut had returned to her son's
court, where she commenced that struggle, which afterward proved fatal to
her, against the nobles of Austrasia. At one time, her own party and that
of the nobles were drawn up in battle array against each other, when she,
seeing that the combat would be a bloody one, and that her own side was
the weaker, boldly rushed between them and demanded that they desist.
*' Woman, retire," exclaimed one of the dukes ; *'you have reigned long
enough under the name of your husband ; let that suffice you. Your son
is now our king ; Austrasia is under our guardianship, not yours. Retire,
directly, or our horses' feet shall trample you to the earth."
But the intrepid Brunehaut, unmoved by this savage address, persisted,
and at last succeeded in preventing the combat. Although obliged to yield
to her turbulent subjects for a short time, Brunehaut soon regained her
authority, which she used with great cruelty. In her anger she spared no
one, but put to death or exiled all persons of rank who fell in her power.
She also raised an army which she sent against Clotaire, the young
son of Fredegonda ; but she was defeated, and Fredegonda took advantage
of the intestine commotion in Austrasia to regain all that her husband had
lost.
After the death of Childebert in 596, the nobles prevented her from rul-
ing in the name of her grandson, Theodebert II. ; but another of her grand-
sons, Thierry II. of Burgundy, made her mistress of his affairs. She
quickly kindled a war between the two brothers. Theodebert was van-
158
AMALASONTHA.
A. D. 408-53A.
INNOCENT VICTIM OF POLITICAL INTRIGUE.
^ ♦ » 4-
/|f MALASONTHA, daughter of Theoderic the Great, king of the
^1 Ostrogoths, was born in 498, and died in 535. She was the
mother of Athalaric by Eutharic. She inherited her father's pos-
sessions, as guardian of her son ; but by endeavoring to educate him in the
manners and learning of the more polished Romans, she offended her
nobles, who conspired against her, and obtained the government of the
young prince. Athalaric was inured by them to debauchery, and he sunk
under his excesses at the early age of seventeen, in the year 534. The
afflicted mother knew not how to support herself against her rebellious sub-
jects but by taking as her husband and partner on the throne her cousin
Theodatus, who, to his everlasting infamy, caused her to be strangled in a
»»A. 535.
For learning or humanity, she had few equals in her time. She received
and conversed with ambassadors from various nations without the aid of an
interpreter.
The emperor of Constantinople sent an army against her murderer,
under the celebrated general Belisarius, who defeated and dethroned him.
Brunelittut continued,
quished at Toul and at Tolbiac, and slain with his family in 612. Thierry
suddenly died soon after, and Brunehaut seemed about to ascend the throne
•^Rain, when she was opposed by Clotairc II., son of PVedcgonda, at the
^€ad of an army of Burgundians and Aiistrasians. She encountered the
^nemy on the banks of the Aisne, but her troops refused to tij^lit, and
^ninehaut fell into the hands of the son of Kredegonda, who reproached
"^rwith having caused the death of ten kings or sons of kint^s, exposed her
''>r three days to torture and to the insults of tlie soldiers, and then hound
^er by a foot and an arm to the tail of a wild horse. Her remains were
thtn burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds.
Brunehaut has been diversely judged by historians, being by some
accused of monstrous crimes, and extravagantly praised by others.
159
RADKOONDE.
A. D. Sixth Century.
A COURAGEOUS AND PIOUS QUEEN.
4^j^^__^
RADEGONDE, or Radegunda, daughter of Berthar, a prince of Thu-
ringia, flourished in the early part of the sixth century. Having
been carried as a prisoner to France in the twelfth year of her age
by Clotaire V. , at that time king of the district whose capital is now called
Soissons, she was educated in the Christian religion, and when she reached
a maturer age was induced, very reluctantly, to become his wife. Her own
wish having been to become a nun, her married life was in great measure
given up to works of charity and religion, and Clotaire complained that
he " had married a nun rather than a queen."
Radegonde spent six years in this way, during all which time Clotaire
obstinately refused to let her go into a convent. A brother of the young
queen had been taken prisoner at the same time and as he grew up he
showed so much of the pride and temper of his race that Clotaire had
him put to death. This was too much for Radegonde to endure, and
Clotaire, not wishing to be annoyed by her grief, allowed her to go to
Medard, bishop of Noyon, whose reputation for sanctity had extended
throughout all France, for consolation. When she arrived at Noyon she
found Medard in his cathedral, and immediately exclaimed : " Priest of
God ! I wish to leave the world, and consecrate myself to the Lord." At
these words the guard who accompanied her crowded around her, and
protested against such an act. While Medard hesitated as to what course
he should take, Radegonde fled to the sacristy, threw the dress of a nun
over her royal apparel, and returning said to Medard, ** If you refuse to
receive me, if you fear man more than God, you will have to answer for it
before the Shepherd of the flock."
These words put an end to the uncertainty of the bishop. He annulled,
on his own authority, the forced marriage of the queen, consecrated her to
God, and sent away the soldiers, who could offer no further opposition.
Radegonde went to Tours for greater safety, and when Clotaire, still
ardently attached to her, sent to reclaim her, she fled to Poitiers. Here
160
QUEEN BKRTHA.
A. 1>. Sixth Century.
FOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN CANTERBURY.
yj HIS noted woman was the daughter of Cherebert, king of Paris. She
V ^ married Ethelbert, king of Kent, who succeeded to the throne
*^ about the year 560. Ethelbert was a pagan in religion, but Bertha
was a Christian, and in the marriage treaty she stipulated for the free exer-
cise of her religion, and took with her a French bishop. By her influence
Giristianity was introduced into England ; for so exemplary were her life
and conduct that she inspired the king and his court with a high respect for
her personally and likewise for the religion by which she was influenced.
The pope, taking advantage of this, sent forty monks, among whom was St.
Aug;ustine, to preach the gospel and further the work of Christianization.
Under the protection of the queen they soon found means of communication
«^ith the king, who finally submitted to public baptism.
Christianity proved the means of promoting knowledge and civilization
w England, and this convert king enacted a body of laws which was the
fot written code promulgated by the northern conquerors. Thus largely
to the influence of the pious queen Bertha was due the impulse of redeem-
»ng England from paganism ; and moreover to her belongs the glory of
planting the first Christian church in Canterbury. She was later canonized
hy the church.
Kadegond© coatiaued.
tHe energetic remonstrance of Germain, bishop of Paris, obliged him to
leave her, and he allowed her to found a convent there, which she did about
550. where she passed the rest of her life. She was at first abbess of this
convent, but after it was firmly established she gave up her authority to a
younjjer woman, whom she called Agnes, and lived for the remainder of
"^ life as a simple nun. Her convent held a high reputation in that age
lorthe devotif)n of its members to religion, and also for their cultivation of
literature and the arts.
Radegonde died at Poitiers, August 13, 587. She was afterwards can-
onized.
161
CHRODIELDE.
A. D. Sixth Century.
THE VICTIM OF HER OWN IGNOBLE AMBITION.
GHRODIELDE was a nun, inmate of the convent founded by Rade-
gonde at Poitiers, who caused the temporary dispersion of this
powerful community. Soon after Radegonde's death, in 587,
Chrodielde, who pretended that she was the daughter of the late king
Cheribert, induced many of the nuns to take an oath that as soon as she
succeeded in forcing the abbess Leubov^re to leave the convent, by
accusing her of several crimes, they would place her at their head. She
then, with more than forty nuns, among whom was Baslne, daughter of
Chilperic, went to Tours, where she wished to place her companions under
the care of Gregory, bishop of Tours, while she went to lay her complaint
before Gontran, king of Burgundy.
Gregory advised her to return, but in vain ; and Chrodielde went to
make her petition to the king, who promised to examine into the cause of
her dissatisfaction.
Chrodielde would not return to the cloister, but went, with her compan-
ions, into the cathedral of St. Hilary, while the bishops, whom the king
had sent, were investigating the affair. Here she collected around her for
her defense, thieves, murderers, and criminals of all kinds, who drove away
with violence the bishops who came to disperse them.
Childebert, king of France, sent orders that these disturbances should
be repressed by force if necessary ; but Chrodielde, at the head of her
banditti, made such a violent resistance that it was with difficulty the
king's orders were executed.
The abbess of St. Radegonde was tried by the tribunal of bishops on the
charges of severity, ill-treatment, and sacrilege, which Chrodielde had pre-
ferred against her, and found entirely innocent of everything but too g^eat
indulgence. Chrodielde and her followers were excommunicated on
account of their violent conduct, and their attack on the convent and the
abbess Leubovere, which latter they had drawn through the streets by the
hair, and afterwards imprisoned.
162
THBODORA.
A. D. 508-548.
WIFE OF JUSTINIAN, FOUNDER OF THE CIVIL LAW.
f ■ \ HEODORA, Empress of the East, the wife of Justinian, was famous
JL for her beauty, intrigues, ambitions, and talents, and for the part
she acted in the direction of affairs, both in the church and state, in
the reign of her husband.
She was born probably in Constantinople, though according to some in
Cyprus. According to Procopius she was the daughter of Acacius, a bear-
ieeder of the amphitheater at Constantinople to the Green Faction.
By the death of her father her mother was left destitute, with three
daughters, Comito, Theodora, and Anastasia, none of whom was over seven
years of age. The three successively appeared on the stage as pantomimic
dancers, an occupation held in general contempt. In the Anecdota, attrib-
uted to Procopius, scandalous stories are narrated of Theodora's youth,
which it is impossible to verify or wholly refute. In 525, she married the
consul Justinian, who had obtained from his uncle Justin I. abrogation of
the law which forbade marriage between a senator and a woman of servile
origin, or who had appeared on the stage. In 527 Justinian succeeded to
the throne, and she was made co-regent.
During the twenty- three years of married life she showed herself his
wonhy consr)rt. Her courage and judicious counsels prevented his deposi-
tion al the revolt of the Nika in 532, and in all questions of administration
^e took a notable share. No female sovereign manifested larger interest
m the unfortunate and destitute of her own sex, or strove more earnestly to
^^viate their condition. It is supposed that thus she sought to atone for
the possible faults of her own youth. She retained her ascendency over
the mind of Justinian to the last. He consulted her in everything, and
allowed her to interfere directly in the government of the empire. Her
^'nly child by him was a daughter.
Theodora was of small stature, pale, delicate, vivacious, graceful, had
''•^ressive eyes, and was fascinating in manner. She died of cancer in
M^, at Pythia, near Broussa, whither she had gone for the baths.
163
KREDEOONDA.
A. D. 645-597.
ROYAL RIVAL OF QUEEN BRUNEHAUT.
JjXREDEGONDA, a Prankish queen, and rival of the famous Brune-
-L haut, was born about the year 545 and died in 597. She was maid of
honor to Audovera, queen of Chilp6ric I. of Neustria, and the king
being captivated by her beauty made her his concubine. She contrived by
a trick the repudiation of the queen, but was disappointed by the marriage
of Chilp6ric with Galsuinda, a Visigoth princess and sister of Brunehaut,
who had been married to his brother Sigebcrt, king of Austrasia.
Attributing this marriage to the influence of the Austrasian queen, Fre-
degonda vowed deadly hatred to both sisters. She removed Galsuinda
by assassination, became her successor, and brought about a war between
the two brothers, in which Sigebert was victorious, but soon fell by the
hands of assassins.
Brunehaut, who became her captive, escaped death and returned to her
own country ; but Meroveus, the son of Chilp^ric by his first wife, who
had been secretly married to her, fell a victim to the revenge of his step-
mother.
A series of atrocious crimes followed. Pretextatus was treacherously
murdered ; Clovis, the brother of Meroxcus, was executed on the false ac-
cusation of having caused the death of Fredegonda's three children ; the
mother of the princes was strangled, their sister outraged and confined hi a
convent. Finally she contrived the assassination of her husband, and
assumed the government in the name of her son Clotaire. She now suc-
cessfully renewed the war against Austrasia, and remained in power until
her death, which occurred suddenly in 597. She was buried in the mon-
astery of St. V^incent, since, St. Germain-des-Pres.
Half the cruelties committed by this woman, whose ambition and intel-
lect seem to have been equaled only by her crimes, have not been related
in history. She tortured and murdered without the slightest remorse all
who opposed her will. The only womanly affection she exhibited was her
love for her children.
164
A. D. 610-677.
SECOND WIFE OF MAHOMET.
XJ>|YESHAH, the favorite wife of Mahomet, and daughter of Abu-Bekr,
^^J^ the first caliph, was born at Medina about 6io A. D. At the time
of her marriage to the Prophet she was only nine years of age.
She had no children but his affection for her continued until death, and he
expired in her arms. After his death, she was regarded with great venera-
tion by the Mussulmans as filled with an extraordinary portion of Mahomet's
spirit They gave her the tide of ** Mother of the Faithful," and consulted
W on important occasions.
Ayeshah entertained a strong aversion for the caliph Othman ; and she
W actually formed a plot to dethrone him, with the intention of placing in
His stead her favorite Telha, when Othman was assassinated by another
«i«ny, in a sedition.
The succession of Ali was also strongly opposed by Ayeshah. Joined
l>y Telha and Zobier, at Mecca, she raised a revolt, under the pretense of
avenging the murder of Othman ; an army was levied, which marched
toward Bassora, while Ayeshah, at its head, was borne in a litter on a camel
^>i great strength. On arriving at a village called Jowab, she was saluted
^ith the loud barking of the dogs of the place, which, reminding her of a
prediction of the Prophet in which the dogs of Jowab were mentioned, so
intimidated her that she declared her resohition not to advance a step. It
^^ not till a number of persons had been suborned to swear that the vil-
^'^ had been wrongly named to her, and till the artifice had been em-
Myed of terrifying her with a report of Ali's being in the rear, that she
*^ prevailed upon to proceed.
She was refuse^d admittance into the city. In the end, however, her
ir'^'Ops j^ained possession. Ali assembled an army and marched against
^'^^- Ayeshah violently opposed all pacific counsels, and resolved to pro-
^^ to the utmost extremity. A fierce battle ensued in which Telha and
Zobier were slain. The combat raged about Ayeshah' s camel, and an Ara-
''iin writer says that the hands of seventy men who successively held its
166
FATIMA.
A. D. 606-68S.
DAUGHTER OF MAHOMET. FOUNDER OF THE MOSLEM FAITH.
S>Qj)|CZ3^
BATIMA, the only daughter of Mahomet, and mother of all Arabian
dynasties, was born in Mecca about 606 A.D. In the year 623 she
married her cousin AH, who afterwards became a caliph. Turkish
writers assert that the archangels Michael and Gabriel acted as guardians to
the bride, and that seventy thousand angels joined the procession. Fatima
died a few months after her father.
The Fatimites, or descendants of Fatima, became a powerful Arab
dynasty which ruled for two and one half centuries in Egypt and Syria,
while the Abbaside caliphs reigned at Bagdad. They first attained to
empire under Abu Mohammed Obeidallah, who, A. D. 909, announced
himself in Syria as the director of the faithful, foretold by the Koran, and
expected as the Messiah by a class of heterodox Mussulmans. Denounced
by the caliph, he fled to Egypt, and traversed the whole of the north of
Africa to Sedjelmessa, where he was imprisoned. He was delivered and rec-
ognized as a messenger from heaven, by Abu Abdallah, who had just over-
thrown the African dynasties. He made himself master of northern Africa.
On the death of Adhed in 1171, the dynasty of the Fatimites was
extinguished, and a new one established by the great Saladin.
^xeahetln. continued,
bridle were cut off, and that her litter was stuck so full of darts as to
resemble a porcupine. The camel, from which this day's fight takes its
name, was at length hamstrung, and Ayeshah became a captive. Ali
treated her with great respect, and sent her to Medina on condition that
she should live peaceably at home, and not intermeddle with state affairs.
Her resentment afterwards appeared in her refusal to suffer Hassan, the
unfortunate son of Ali, to be buried near the tomb of the Prophet, which
was her property. She seems to have regained her influence in the reign .
of the caliph Moawiyah. She died A. D. 677, aged sixty-seven, having
constantly commanded a high degree of respect from the followers of
Mahomet, except at the time of her imprudent expedition against Ali.
166
SALADIX, TMK M( )IL\MMi:i )AN CoNtjlI .K< »K
SALADIN.
RepraducBd frnni the painting by Gustava
Enra, a native of Strasburg. Dara Bxcallad
as a painter, dasignar, and sculptor, having
astaunding facility of hand and a wealth of
ImaginatlDn. His " Mountebank's Family/'
''Night of the Crucifixion," and "Dante and
■yirgil " have already become classic.
«0-is
THEODELINDA.
m. A. D. 589. d. 628.
ZEALOUS IN SPREADING CHRISTIANITY.
rHEODELINDA, daughter of Garibaldo, duke of Bavaria, and
queen of the Lombards, is celebrated because of her instrumen-
tality in converting the Arian Lombards to the Roman church.
She was at first betrothed to Childebert, son of the haughty Brune-
Vuut, but was rejected by her. She afterwards, in 589, married Autari,
king of the Lombards, with whom sh« lived in great affection ; neverthe-
less he died in 590, and not without suspicion of having been poisoned.
Theodelinda became the mediator between the Lombards amd the Cath-
olic church, and early became imbued with its doctrines. She then sol-
emnly placed the Lombard nation under the patronage of St. John the
Baptist, and at Monza she built in his honor the first Lombard church, and
the royal palace near it. Under her direction, too, the relics of St. Augus-
tine wea- brought to be placed in the church at Pavia.
The people were very much attached to her ; but that turbulent age
5»etmedto require a stronger hand than that of a young girl to sway the rod
'^l the empire. She therefore found it expedient to contract a second mar-
na^'cuith F"la\ ius Agilulphus, who, as her husband, was invested with the
cn^i^'ns (,[ royalty before a general congress at Milan. She was destined to
i**-' a second time a widow. Agilulphus died in 615. From that time she
assumed the government as regent, which she maintained with vigor and
P^^^perity.
Theodelinda encouraged and improved agriculture ; endowed charitable
'Oundations, and, in accordance with what the piety of that age required,
''^'"t monasteries. What was more extraordinary, and seems to have been
r»rely thought of by the men sovereigns of that day, she reduced the taxes,
'"*J tried to soften the miseries of the inferior classes. She died in 628,
''^My lamented by her subjects.
^eu men of this time have exhibited powers of mind so well balanced
•^^ere those of Theodelinda ; and this unusual sense of the just and true
^tted her for the manifold duties of government.
169
ERIVI ENOARDE.
d. A. U. 773.
THE UNHAPPY QUEEN OF CHARLEMAGNE.
<*-*-«>
/ I \ HE life of this queen is but a recital of her misfortunes. The precise
-L date of her birth is not known. She was the daughter of Desiderio
or Didier, as he is generally named by English writers, king of the
Lombards, and his queen Ausa.
Charlemaghe ascended the throne of France in 768. Two years after,
his mother Bertrade, making a journey into Italy, was struck by the flour-
ishing state of Desiderio' s kingdom, as well as by the beauty and attractive
charms of his daughter Ermengarde. She then formed the plan of a double
marriage with this family, allotting Ermengarde to Charlemagne, and her
own Ciola to Adelchi, son of Desiderio. This scheme was opposed by the
existing Pope, Stephen III., who used many arguments to dissuade France
from the connection. The influence of Bertrade, however, prevailed, and
she had the satisfaction of taking home with her the young princess, for
whom she cherished a warm affection.
At first everything was done to bring pleasure and happiness to the
young queen. The particular friendship subsisting between her and her
mother-in-law has been commemorated by Manzoni in beautiful and touch-
ing poetry. A terrible reverse, however, awaited her. Charlemagne, from
causes now impossible to ascertain, repudiated her, and sent her ignomini-
ously back to her family. He was entreated to revoke this cruel mandate,
but in vain. After a year of deceptive happiness, Ermengarde returned to
the court of Lombardy. Her father and brother received her with the
utmost tenderness.
> A little later, Ermengarde received intelligence that her faithless hus-
band had just united himself to the young and lovely Ildegarde. This was
to her a death-blow. She retired to a monastery founded by her parents,
and of which her sister was abbess. Here her existence was soon termi-
nated. She died in 773.
Adelard, a cousin of Charlemagne, was so disgusted with the unlawful
marriage of his sovereign, that he became a monk.
170
IRENE.
A.D. 75S-aOS.
EMPRESS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
j^RENE, the famous Byzantine empress, was born in Athens, about 752,
T and died on the isle of Lesbos, August 15, 803. She was an orphan
» and seventeen years of age, when her beauty and genius attracted the
attention of the emperor Constantine V. , who destined her to be the wife of
his son and heir, Leo. Their nuptials were celebrated with royal splendor
at Constantinople, in 769.
Obliged by her husband to abandon the worship of images, to which
she had been educated, she, however, gained his love and confidence, and
vas appointed in his testament to administer the government during the
minority of their son Constantine VL, then ten years of age. She imme-
diately manifested her zeal for the restoration of images. For this object
she assembled a council at Constantinople in 786, which was interrupted by
the gamson of the capital. In the following year she called another coun-
cil at Nice, in which the veneration of images was declared agreeable to
Scripture and reason, and to the fathers and councils of the Church. With
the iconoclastic controversy is connected the struggle between the mother
and the son for supremacy.
As Constantine advanced toward maturity, he was encouraged by his
lavontes to throw off the maternal yoke, and planned the perpetual banish-
njwtof Irene to Sicily. Her vigilance disconcerted the project, and, while
the two factions divided the court, the Armenian guards refused to take the
oath of fidelity which she exacted to herself alone, and Constantine became
w* fill emperor. Irene was dismissed to a life of solitude in one of the
"^perial palaces, but her intrigues led to the formation of successive con-
spirades for her restoration.
On the return of Constantine from an expedition against the Arabs in
797. he was dispatched by assassins.
Irene succeeded to the throne, and for five years ruled the empire with
prudence and energy. Intercourse was renewed between the Byzantine
c*Hirt and that of Charlemagne, and Irene is said to ha\ e sent ambassadors
171
ABASSA.
Klfchth Century A. I>.
SISTER OF THE FAMOUS MOHAMMEDAN RULER.
QBASSA, a sister of Haroun al Raschid, a caliph of the Saracens, A.D.
786, was so beautiful and accomplished, that the caliph often
lamented he was her brother, thinking no other husband could be
found worthy of her. To sanction, however, a wish he had of conversing
at Xhe same time with the two most enlightened people he knew, he married
her to his vizier, Giafar, the Barmecide, on condition that Giafar should not
regard her as his wife. Giafar, not obeying this injunction, was put to
death by order of the enraged caliph, and Abassa was dismissed from hb
court.
She wandered about, sometimes reduced to the extreme of wretched-
ness, reciting her own stor)' in song, and there are still extant some Arabic
verses composed by her, which celebrate her misfortune. In the divan
entitled Juba, Abassa' s genius for poetry is mentioned ; and a specimen of
her composition, in six Arabic lines, addressed to Giafar, her husband,
whose society she was restricted by her brother from enjoying, is to be
found in a book written by Hen Abou Haydah.
She left two children, twins, whom Ciiafar, before his death, had sent
privately to Mecca to be educated.
Irc*ri«^ continued,
to negotiate a marriage between that emperor and herself, and thus to unite
the empires of the Kast and the West.
As her golden chariot moved through the streets of Constantinople, the
reins of the four white steeds wrrt- IkIcI by as many patricians marching on
foot. Most of these patricians were eunuchs, and by one of them, the
great treasurer Nicephorus, she was ensnared to her ruin. He was secretly
invested with the purple, and immediately arrested and banished Irene to
the Isle of Kesbo^. There, deprived of all means of subsistence, she gained
a scanty livelihood by spinning, and died <»f ^rief within a year. Her pro-
tection of ima^e worship has caused her to Ix- enrolled among the saints in
the Greek calendar.
172
MOHAMMKDAN \V( ).M AN.
MDHAMMEDAN WDMilN.
ReproducBd fram a painting by J. L. GarDmB,
ana of most popular French artists, and a pupil
of the calabratBd Paul DalarnchB. GaraniB has
palntad a variety of subjects, ancient and
modern, which have gained him a foreniDst
place In the modern French school. In IBBS,
at the Paris Salon, he was a medaUst of honor;
and twenty years prior to that time had bean
made a Member of the Institute.
^tiVii)
JUDITH, QUBEN OK LOUIS I.
Ninth Century A. 1>.
CELEBRATED FOR HER MOTHERLY AMBITION.
JUDITH, the second wife of Louis le Debonnaire, son of Charlemagne,
I was a (laughter of Welff, Duke of Bavaria. She was celebrated for
>J her beauty and intellectual accomplishments, and succeeded in
obtaining such a control over the king's affections that she governed not
only the palace, but also exercised the greatest influence in the govern-
ment
Her eldest son, who afterwards reigned under the name of Charles the
Bald, was bom in 823 ; but as the king had already divided his estate be-
tween the sons of his former marriage, there was nothing left for him.
Judith immediately exerted herself to obtain a kingdom for her child, and
consequently by the consent of Lothaire, eldest son of Louis, such a pos-
session was obtained.
Pepin, the second son of Louis, having convinced Lothaire of his folly
w yielding up his possessions at the request of Judith, induced him to unite,
^ith himself in a rebellion against Judith and Louis. In 829, they sur-
rounded Aix, took Judith and her husband prisoners, and, accusing Judith
of too jrreat intimacy with Bernard, her prime minister, forced her to take
^ ^eij, in the convent of St. Radegonde.
*hey, however, permitted Judith to have a private interview with her
husband on condition that she should urge him to immediate abdication.
In^ she promised to do ; but, instead, advised Louis to yield to circum-
'^tances and go to the monastery of St. Medard, at Soissons, but not to
abdicate the crown. The king followed her advice, and in 830, Lothaire,
having quarreled with his brother, restored the crown to Louis, who im-
mediately recalled Judith.
The pope released her from her conventical vows, and she cleared her-
^ by an oath from the accusation of adultery that was brought against
her.
^^ ^33i the emperor was again betrayed and deposed by his children,
although Judith had exerted herself in every way, even by cruelty, to re-
176
ANQELBBRGA.
Ninth Ontiirj A. D.
QUEEN OF LOUIS II, KING OF ITALY.
jhch:
fil NGELBERGA, Empress of the West, wife of Louis IL, emperor and
^S^^ king of Italy, is supposed to have been of illustrious birth, though
that is uncertain. She was a woman of courage and ability ; but
proud, unfeeling, and venal. The war in which her husband was involved
with the king of Germany was especially rendered unfortunate by her pride
and rapacity.
In 874, Angelberga built, at Plaisance, a monastery, which afterwards
became one of the most famous in Italy. After the death of Louis, Angel-
berga remained at the convent of St. Julia, in Brescia, where her treasures
were deposited. In 881, Charles the Fat, of France, caused Angelberga to
be taken and carried prisoner into Germany, lest she should assist, by
her wealth and political knowledge, her daughter Ermengarde, who had
married Boron, king of Provence, a relative of Charles. She was released,
however, through the intervention of the pope. It is not known when
she died.
Angelberga had two daughters, Ermengarde, who survived her, and
Gisela, abbess of St. Julia, who died before her parents.
Jtadltli continued.
tain for her weak husband the power he could not keep for himself. After
a year of confinement, Louis was again placed on the throne ; and by the
new division of the empire, arranged in 839, Judith had the satisfaction of
seeing her son placed in })Ossession of a large ^hare of those estates from
which he had seemed forever excluded.
Louis the Mild died in 840, and Judith survived him only three years.
She died at Tours.
In her heart the mother's ambition was the predominating power. All
her efforts were devoted to securing what she deemed to be an equitable
partition of the royal patrimony.
176
ETH ELF LEDA.
d. A. n. 9aa»
THE MARTIAL WIFE OF ETHELDRED, EARL OF MERCIA.
tt) THELFLEDA, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, and sister of
\2i Edward L, king of the West Saxons, was wife to Etheldred, Earl of
Mercia. She was of a masculine temperament and, after the birth
«>t her first child, she made a vow of chastity and united with her husband*
ID his profession of arms. She retained a cordial friendship for her hus-
liandand together they performed numerous acts of munificence and valor.
T(jgether they assisted Alfred in his wars against the Danes, whom they
prevented the Welsh from succoring. Not less pious than valiant, they
restored cities, founded abbeys, and protected the bones of departed saints.
Alter the death of her husband, in 912, Ethelfleda assumed the gov-
eniment of Mercia ; and, emulating her father and brother, commanded
^i*s. fortified towns, and prevented the Danes from re-settling in Mercia.
Tl)en. canning her victorious arms into Wales, she compelled the WY^lsh,
attcr several victories, to become her tributaries. In 918 she t(X)k Derby
^'>m the Danc^ ; and in 920 Leicester and York. Having become famed
^'•r her spirit and courage, the titles of lady and (pieen were judged in-
•'*<iequatf t(» her merit, and, in addition to these, she received those of lord
and kinjr.
Her courage and activity were em|)loyed in the service of her coimtry
till her death, in 922, at Tamworth. in Staffordshire, where she was defend-
'"Js' 'ijs'ainst the Danes. Her body was interred in the porch of the monas-
l«T\«.f St. IVter. in Gloucester, which she had in concert with her husband
*'^*^it^l She left one daughter, Klswina.
T^he death of Kthelfleda was deej)ly regretted by the whole kingdom,
^^P^iaily by her brother Edward, to whom she proved equally serviceable
in thv cabinet and in the field. Ingul|)hus. the historian, speaks of
tne extraordinary courage and other masculine virtues of this princess,
^nd[>ays just tribute to her diplomatic skill as well as to her martial quali-
ties.
177
QERBERQE.
Tenth Century A. D.
COURAGEOUS WIFE OF LOUIS IV. OF FRANCE.
^K ERBERGE, queen of Louis IV. of France, was the daughter of
l^Y Henry, who became king of Germany in 918. She married first
Gislebert, Duke of Lorraine, who was drowned in the Rhine. In
940 she married Louis IV. , whose crown was secured to him by Hugh,
Count of Paris, and William, Duke of Normandy. Five years after her
royal husband was taken prisoner by the Normans, while endeavoring to
free himself from the tutelage of Hugh.
Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, wished to obtain possession of
him ; but the Duke of Normandy consented to give him up only on condi-
tion that Louis' two sons should become hostages for their father. Hugh
sent to demand them of Gerberge, but she refused, well knowing that the
race of Charlemagne would be entirely destroyed if the father and children
were all prisoners. She sent only the youngest son with a bishop ; so,
Louis not being set free, Gerberge sent to demand aid from her brother
Otho, king of Germany. Louis was at length liberated, by Otho*s assist-
ance, and he confided to Gerberge the defense of the town of Rheims, in
which she shut herself up with her troops.
In 954 Louis died, and Gerberge exerted herself eflectually to have her
eldest son Lothairc, although hardly twelve, placed on his father's throne.
She and her brother Bruno, Duke of Lorraine, were appointed regents.
She marched with her young son, at the head of an army, and besi^ed
Poitiers ; and, in 960, she retook the city and fortress of Dijon, which had
been treacherously given up to Robert of Treves, and had the traitor be-
headed in the presence of the whole army.
Lothaire reigned till 986, and was succeeded by his son Louis V. , th^
last of the Carlovingian dynasty, who reigned a single year under th
protection of Hugh Capet. Louis V. was poisoned either by his moth^
or his wife, both of whom were dissolute women, and was succeeded t — ^
Hugh, the founder of the Capetian dynasty.
178
CDURT LIFE IN DRANAEA,
RaproducBd frnni a painting by Edward
Richtar, a Parisian genre and portrait painter,
The " Jbtvbbs of MornccD/' "At the Fnrtune-
Teller's," "SalDme," and the " Bazaar in Tunis,"
by the same artist, have been received with
much favor.
.^^
Q
<
o
u
OENERAIv CONDITIONS
DURING THB DARK AQES
F'KOM CAM) TO llOO A. D.
^ HE difficalty of tracinj^ any wt-ll (kfincd line of development during
\ J this period is very well recognized by all comj>etent authorities.
T This is not difficult to understand when the chaotic political condi-
tion of Eun>pe is taken into accoiuit, f<j]]owin^ closely upon the disruption
of the Roman F-mpire, and extendinj^ down to the time of the first Crusiide.
Nevertheless, a number of elements were j)res(iit and j)Otent in giving
woman whatever distinctive impress she may hav<- had during this sterile
period, — sterile, it must be remembered, witli nsptct to a highly organized
social order. The most j>rominent of these elements or forces were Chris-
tianity, feudalism, and chivalry, in their actual relations witli domestic life ;
and in order to measure the peculiar influence of thes<- institutions, it is
desiraUe to invite attention to them separately.
From the fall of the Roman Kmj)ire till the death of Charlemagne, A. IX
814, various attempts were made to re-establish the emj>ire, but the warring
of i)etty (iermanic kings and the conflicting ambitions of
rival aspirants were very geiurally effective in defeating its
restoration. During this ])eriod. a great revolution had taken
place in the condition, social and political, <)t thr dominions of the Franks.
The dynasty of the Merovingians, by its own discordant character and
weakness, had fallen, and given way tt> ant)ther race of kings. Charle-
magne gave to the royalty of the Franks a new character : he jn^ssi-ssed in
a high degree the Roman spirit, and for a while In- brought back into exist-
ence the Roman Kmi)ire, with all its powerful centralizati(»n. Hut Charle-
magne*s influence and iK>wer of government belonged to himself, and dis-
appeared after his death, and thus this event was followed very tjuickly by
utter disorganization throughout his va^t dominions, rnder the terrible
invasions of the Northmen, which soon follow r«|. ib.t only all » entral pt>WfT,
Init in a manner all power whatever. disa])|>eart d.
Out of this confusion aroM* an entirely new >t.ite of society, which we
know as the feudal system.
181
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
Under feudalism, alf central power had become paralyzed, and the great
lords, with their vast territories, had by the existing system no armed force
to defend them. Under these circumstances they introduced
*" * a new method of distributing" their lands, which was by grant-
System ^ ^ ^
ing it hereditarily on the condition that the tenant was bound
not only to cultivate the portion of land he held, but to perform certain
military services according to its extent ; or, in other words, he was bound
to furnish to his superior lord in time of war so many armed men for so
many acres.
Touching the bond of feudalism, M. Sismondi makes the following
observations : —
* * The essence of the feudal bond was the military service ; the vassal
cr^g^«^gc<i himself for the defense of his lord, towards and against all, to ren-
der fhis service, either alone, or with a greater or lesser number of knights
and followers in arms, according to the dignity of his fief ; this service was
to last during a number of determined days. On the other hand, the lord
bound himself so completely to protect his vassal, that he engaged himself
to entire restitution if the vassal was ejected from his fief. To these engage-
ments, which formed the essence of the feudal contract, others were joined,
the nature of which seemed more chivalric, and the observation of which was
likewise confided to the guarantee of the point of honor. Thus the vassal
was bound, if his lord lost his horse in battle, to give him his own in
exchange ; he was to cover him with liis body in danger, to deliver himself
up to prison for him, or in hostage, to keep his secrets, to reveal to him the
machinations of his enemies, to defend, in fine, his honor, and that of all
the members of his family.''
This system brought with it new institutions and new forms of life.
Under it the landed aristocracy assumed and exercised, each with his own
domains, sovereign power, legislative, judicial, and military.
instltntions and thus the state was transformed into a number of little
sovereignties. The new lords of the land formed alliances
among themselves, or made war upon each other at their own will, and
their whole aim was to keep themselves in a prominent state of defense.
The old residences, which had consisted in a confused mass of buildings
182
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
with little or no capability of. defense, were now abandoned, and their
places were supplied by almost impregnable fortresses. The castle, indeed,
is become, in a manner, the symlx)! or imajje of feudalism.
In this fortri*ss, placed at a distance from all social life without, the lord
and his lady lived in a complete state of isolation. Without occupation in
this solitary alnule, lifi- at home must have lx*en so weari-
Peadal
rtigtl^ some that the jijreat desire <if thr male part of the household
would hf to be absent from it : and hence we find the jK)ssess-
orsof fiefs passing ihi-ir tinu- on tht- hi^h road, in adventures of every kind,
wars, plunderinjjs, and anythinj; which jiromised violent activity. The
coarseness and ferocity which arose out of this life threw a new inifiediment
in the way of social and intellectual improvement, and these early ag^es of
feudalism were, indeed, aj^es of darkness. Vet, as one of the ablest of our
modern historians has observed, "at the sune time that castles opposed so
strong a barrier to civilization, whih* it had so much difticiilty in penetrat-
inj( into them, they were in a certain resj)ecl a princij)le of civilization ;
they j)rotected the d<'\eloj)nienl of M-iiliments and manners which have
acted a powerful aii<l salutary part in modern >ocieiy ; everyl)ody knows
that domotic life, the >j)irit of family, and particularly the condition of
woman in nn»dern luirop<* are highly (le\<lop<-d.
"Amonj^the causes which ha\<' contributed to this dexelopment. we
must reckon life in the castle, the situation of the possessor of the fief in his
domains, a> one of the princip.il. \e\er. in an v other form
*** * of societv, lia> the familv been reduced to il»^ most simple
expiession. tin- husband, the \\if< , .md the childnn. an<i In-en
so bound, so pre>sed tov^tilur. separattd from all other poutiful and rival
relations. In tin- varioii> nther statr-* i»t siuieiy. thr heatl ••! the f.imily.
without quillini: honn . h.id nunuron> ••<'ruj)ali«»n> and di\er>ion>. which
drew him from tin- int« rinr nf hi> dwt llinu. and prevented it from In-inj^ the
center f>f his lif<-. llir r»>ntrarv wa^ th<' ease in f«u(lal s<u iely. So lonjj as
he remaine<l in his i astir, the po>MSM»r of the fief li\eil there with \\\> wile
and chihlrm. ahnM>t hi^ unly e<jnals, his ttnly intimate and jM-rmanent com-
pany. This \h inv: «»blij^r<l to li\«* habitnallv in the boM)m of Iun family with
his wife and rliildnn ir.ive rise to domestic ideas of j^re.U influence."
183
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
Moreover, when the possessor of the fief left his castle to seek war and
adventures, his wife remained in it, and in a situation wholly different
from that in which women had hitherto always been placed. She remained
mistress, chatelaine, representing her husband, charged in his absence
with the defense and honor of the fief. This elevated and almost sovereign
position, in the very bosom of domestic life, often gave the women of
the feudal epoch, a dignity, courage, virtue, and a distinction, which
they had not displayed under other circumstances, and contributed, no
doubt, to their moral development, and to the general progress of their
condition.
This is not all. The importance of children in the feudal mansion, of
the eldest son more especially, was much greater than anywhere else.
This broueht forth not only natural affection, and the desire
Cimdren
to transmit his property to his children, but also the desire to
transmit to them that power, that superior position, that sovereignty in-
herent in the domain. The eldest son of the lord was, in the eyes of his
father and all his people, a prince, an heir presumptive, the depositor>' of
the glory of a dynasty.
So that the weakness as well as the good sentiments of human nature,
domestic pride as well as affection, combined to give the spirit of the family
more energy and power.
Add to this the influence of Christian ideas, which we have merely
noted in passing, and it may be comprehended how this life of the castle,
this solitary, gloomy, hard situation, was favorable to the development of
domestic life, and to that elevation of the condition of woman which
holds so great a place in the history of civilization.
As a wife, at the time of the fullest development of the feudal system,
woman had become, instead of the slave and property of her husband, his
AtfTance ^Q"*^^ *^"^^ "^ most of the relations of life, an independent
of agent. She had become capable of holding independent
Woman pQ^y^^p ^f \^^y own, which was something more than reflecting^
that of her husband. .She was now an heiress, carrying with her as heir
dower, castles, and domains, and provinces, with numerous vassals ; shc^
could be guardian of the manor, regent of the state, and as such, sign
184
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
deeds and share in all obligations imposed by peace or war. Many of the
great ladies of the middle ages ruled over extensive territories, and took a
ver>' active part in political affairs. In the household her position had been
equally advanced, and she was looked upon with a different kind of respect.
Instead of serving the wine to the guests, she sat at the table, and hers was
the place of honor, by the side of her lord. When her lord was absent,
the lady of the house was at the head of the board. The lady of the
castle, too, had the direction and control of the whole family, which was
often very numerous, and entailed large responsibility.
Under these circumstances, there arose a peculiar form of sentiment
between the two sexes, one of which had not been known in the same guise
before.
The lady of the casde, as the head of the household, represented wo-
mankind in full consciousness of independence and self-consciousness, arid
this consciousness had been communicated to the rest
ciilTalry ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ within the castle walls. When woman obtains
this position, it immediately makes itself felt upon the other
sex, and under it the harshness and ferocity which were naturally among
the first characteristics of feudalism were gradually exchanged for elegance
of manners and sentiments which were new to society. Out of this state
^>i thinpi arose two words which will never he forgotten. These words are
fouriesy and chivalty. Courtesy meant simply the manners and sentiments
*hich prevailed in the feudal household : and was, above everything, that
*Hich distinguished the society inside the castle from that without, from the
l«ople of the country, and it is universally allowed that it was the influence
*>^ the* female sex which fostered it. Chivalry arose from the same source,
"Utiook on bolder forms and addressed itself to a somewhat different task.
ih« knight learned to look upon woman as his patron and mistress and
"pon himself as her servant, and as bound to offer himself in her defense,
l^ut though all the princij)les of chivalry and gallantry were universally
acknowledged and talked of. the things themselves sank into forms and
'tatters o| show and ostentation, — to the lonrnamenl and the jonst, — and
"U iheir greatest impress on romance and letters.
Feudal society w;is, in comparison to what had gone before it, polished
185
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
and brilliant, and presented many great qualities, but under the surface it
Morals ^^^ ^^^ ^"^^"^ being pure. The whole society in the castle
and mixed together on something like a footing of equality, and
Amusements^, 1^^^^ the lord of the castle appointed one of the young
bachelors to serve one of his daughters, it might and according to the
romances, sometimes did, end in marriage. During a considerable portion
of the day, the inmates were engaged in playing together at different
amusements and games, and we can perceive in the descriptions given, that
these were often suggestive of anything but chaste feelings, while the
language in common use among both sexes was far from delicate. All
these were combined with an extreme intimacy between the two sexes, who
commonly visited each other in their chambers or bedrooms. Thus we
may easily understand how all these customs would join in giving great
license of tone and character to female society during the feudal period.
It has been stated that feudalism raised woman to a higher place in
domestic life ; that whereas before she was in a state of subjection, under
BieTation ^^^ feudal system she exercised independent power. Un-
of doubtedly, as a wife, woman was a gainer. The mantle of
*^*^'^*^* authority with which her husband was invested, fell upon her
whenever he was temporarily absent. The management of a feudal house-
hold certainly gave the lady of the house a dignity and imposed upon her
responsibilities which secured her respect and gave her freedom of action.
She was called upon to direct a little army of subordinates, and was her
husband's partner and equal. But this improvement in the status of
woman is not discernible except in the governing classes. The women
without title, rank, position, wealth, the women of everyday life, profited
little. They shared in the subjection of their fathers, brothers, and hus-
bands, and they enjoyed none of the privileges which the feudal system
conferred on their more highly placed sisters. In a state of society where
the mass of the people were in a dependent position, it is not likely that
any special freedom would be granted to or even claimed by women.
Under feudalism there was no sort of independence possible to women who
were not born to wealth or rank.
Women were under a twofold sovereignty — that of the feudal lord and
186
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
of their male relatives. No woman in any position of life could be said to
be a free agent.
ilnto ^^ ^^^ were a great heiress, she was disposed of in mar-
riage as best suited the king and his council without regard
to her wishes. In the case of a vassal's daughter, the consent of the feudal
lord must be obtained to her marriage. Every tenant paid a sum of money
to the lord on the marriage of his daughter, and this tax was even levied in
the case of granddaughters. A couple could not be betrothed without the
permission of their feudal lord, and if they failed to obtain his consent they
were subject to a fine. A woman living on the estate of a feudal lord was
regarded as, in a manner, his property. If she married a stranger and left
the manor, the lord was entitled to compensation, as being deprived of part
of his * * live stock. * '
Powerful as was the Church in these ages, it was not able to protect
women outside the shade of the cloister. And it will be readily understood
PoaiUoB ^^'^ great was the influence of the priest in an age when the
•rtlM mass of the people were so little able to think and judge for
^**'*'" themselves, in an age when the supernatural encompassed
<ia3y life with terrors, when the common laws of nature were dim mysteries,
^hcn dise;ise and misfortune were ascribed to the malevole'nce of witches
•md evil spirits. The Church was the supreme arbiter, and to question her
deatx-s was to incur the risk of eternal misery.
The |X)wers of evil could only be exorcised by holy water and priestly
iid. and lapses into sin were atoned for by substantial otTerings. It was
^^y to persuade women, always more suscc|)tibli- than nu-n to the emo-
tional and imaginative side of religion, that their drranis and fancies were
di\ine warnings. And hence they fell easy })rey to ecclesiastical tyranny.
But if the Church tyrannized over tin- people and took advantage of
their ijrnorance, it was a great uplifting and civilizing power in their lives.
But lor the Church the middle ages would have been one dark night of
unulumine<l barbarism. The Church summed up in herself all that existed
'•f knowledge and culture. It was the symbol of order, j)rogre^s, and leani-
Jn^. In time of war it was a haven of peace. It wa^ the Church that
♦-rubied women to live secure, sheltered lives in the midst of turmoils and
187
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
danger. It was the guardian of the people's consciences, and possessed
over them a power of life and death.
Looked at from a lighter side, the Church was a potent factor in every-
day life. Its festivals were one of the chief recreations of the people. To
ciiarGii and women especially, whose diversions were fewer than those of
BTeryday nien, the feast days, with their processions and ceremonials,
were welcome excitements. In the services of the Church,
woman found an outlet for the gratification of her aesthetic sense, which
nothing else afforded. If the main features of social life in this period be
remembered, the sordidness of the dwellings, the absence of everything
beyond the barest necessities in the majority of homes, the lack of indoor
recreations, and of all the resources of modern times afforded by the means
of locomotion, it will not appear strange that the Church as a social force
should have wielded such power.
After the founding of the Benedictine order, in 530, regular nunneries
were also founded, and the conventical system spread rapidly in every part
of Europe. This created a new interest for women of all
Conventual
System ranks and conditions. It is related in the annals of the Eng-
lish Heptarchy that no fewer than thirty kings and queens
resigned their crowns and rank to live and die in religious houses. The
veneration in which they were held, however, soon by its excess engendered
abuses. As numbers of the feudalry, when past the age of enterprise, or
in ill health, or disgusted with the world, took refuge in convents, and there
ended their days, it was usual for them to leave large bequests, and even
give their whole property, for the maintenance of these institutions, and,
when nunneries were established, numbers of noble women chose a clois-
tered life. From these and other causes, a tide of wealth poured in, which
caused a total alteration in the proper character of a system commenced
with the most self-satisfying asceticism.
It is difficult to estimate the exact result of the influence of the estab-
lishment of monasticism upon the character and position of women. In the
Influence of ^^^^'^'^ monasteries of England the two sexes lived together
Monasticism in the same building, though they were bound to strict con-
tinence and chastity. Corruption however, soon introduced
188
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
itself. With the latter part of the eighth century, the nuns became pro-
verbially dissolute in their character, and royal wives and mistresses were
very frecjuently sought in the convents. Hut, on the other hand, it was in
the nunneries that the education of j^irls of all classes was carried on. Con-
vent schools were the only schools either for rich or j)oor, and the "sis-
ters*' the only women able to qualify themselves to become instructors.
The nuns, again, were the chief dispensers of charity. Their duties were
by no means confined to the cloister ; but they went about among the
I>eople, teaching, advising, consoling, and discoursing on subjects with
which convent sistrrs are supposed to have litth* acfjuaintance.
It is fre<iuently asserted, and with much force, that when the clergy
lalK>re<l to emancij)ate the female sex, it was not williout self-interest. They
had seen how the gentleness and pious sj)irit <>f the sex had assisted more
than anything else in the early j)rogress of Christianity. They sought,
therefore, to substitute their own influence ovrr woman for that of the
family. The- women were drawn away frf >m earthly marriages to be, as they
expressed it, married to Christ ; that is, to enter the monasteries, and be-
come inms. The religious houses were thus filled with women who had
either sejjarated from their husbands, or refused to accept the husbands
designed fur them by their fathers, usually under the pnnection, if not under
the encouragement, of the ecclesiastics.
It a|)j),-ars that a man could divorce himself almost at pleasure ; and if
he and his wife aj^re^-d to separate, each was ;rt liberty to marry again with-
out publidv as^ieninu anv cause for their separation.
This view of marriage was attributable very largely to the
influence and j)re(t'pls of the Roman law. which continued to persist
throughout the Middlr AjL^iS as a IhkIv of mtv import.mt j>receilents.
.No legal j)roer>s was nMpiirfd. although the abuse of tlu- j)(»wer of divorce
was sometimes punishe<l. Not until the time of Justinian did divorce
by ctuisenl of both parties become subjtet to any restrictions. This
famous law inakrr wa^ instrumental in counteracting^ numerous marital
abuses, witii a \ lew nuiinly to jmblic ilecorum an<l the comfort of
individual^. h is a remarkable illustration of the Roman view of
marriage that, in view of what must have Ix.'en the great social evil of
UB
WOMAN DURING THE DARK AGES.
capricious di\orce, the right of either party to dissolve the marriage was
never successhilly questioned.
The matter of divorce subsequently passed into the hands of the
bishops, who not only assumed the right of giving their sanction to such
separation, but of annulling a marriage at their own will for any cause they
chose to assign. A very small cause of dissatisfaction was oftentimes con-
sidered a sufficient reason for ecclesiastical interference. But still from
the pure Roman to the canon law the change was great indeed. The
ceremony became sacred, the tie indissoluble. Those whom God hath
joined let not man put asunder, was the first text of the new law of
marriage, and against such a prohibition social convenience and experi-
ence pleaded with much less hope of success. While marriage once created
became indissoluble, the impediments to marriage also multiplied. The tie
of consanguinity was extended, while the power of dispensing with disa-
bilities and the power of annulling marriage on the ground of such disabilities
became more and more the peculiar prerogative of the Church.
So the Church, while with one hand it raised woman from the abasement
into which she had been cast by paganism, lowered her with the other. It
was ever careful to impress upon her its sense of her inferior status. The
higher conception of womanhood was an ideal only, a theme for poets, a
dream of saints ; the lower conception was the guide, the basis of everyday
teaching. It was this lower conception, which, in different ways, deter-
mined woman's position in the social fabric of European life, until the
dawn of a new light many centuries after.
190
minsn
(Q
m\U{e>
BOOK FOUR
WOMAN
UNDER MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS
TO DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
1100 TO 1500 A. D.
IS
«IIP
ANNA COIvINBNA.
A. D. 1083-1148.
GREEK HISTORIAN AND SCHOLAR.
»H & : C4- -
PNNA COMNENA, daughter of the Greek emperor Alexius Com-
nenus, flourished about the year 1118. She renounced in her
youth the amusements and occupations of her sex, to deliver up
hersdf to a passionate fondness for study and letters.
After acquiring a large acquaintance with history and belles-lettres, she
made marked progress in philosophy, notwithstanding the obscurity in
which it was, in those times, involved. She later employed her acquire-
ments in composing a history', in fifteen volumes, of the life and reign of
her father, — a work which she entitled The Alexiad ; eij^ht of these books
were puUished by Haeschelius in 1610 ; and the whole fifteen with a Latin
version in 165 1. In 1670 the learned Charles du Fresne published another
edition with historical and philological notes.
Anna Comnena has been accused of partiality in this work, in which
tbe actions of her father appear to greater advantage than in the writings of
the Latin historians, who, it is not impossible, might have clierishcd prej-
udices s^inst a Greek emperor. The trutli is probably t(^ be found by
^kii^ medium ground. The Journal drs Sai'iDis thus speaks of Anna in
^^75: —
"The elegance with which Anna Comnena has. in htteen books, de-
^1)«1 the life and actions of her fathcT, and the strong and elo(juent
"^nner in which she has set them off, are so much above tlie ordinary
capadty of women, as almost to excite a doubt wluiher >he were indeed
^^aulhorof the work. It is impossible to read the descriptions she has
pven of countries, rivers, mountains, towns, sieges, battles, tlie retleetions
*he makes upon particular events, the judgment slie j)asses u}>on human
actions, with her digressions on various occasions, without |)erceiving tluit
snt must have been skilled in grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and mathe
^tics; nay, e\'en that she must have j)ossessed some knowledi^e nf law,
P«>"^cs, and divinity — studies very rare and uncommon in her sex."
11*3
HBLOISK.
A. D. 1101-1164.
PUPIL AND MISTRESS OF ABELARD.
H-+-+-K
aELOISE, who has been immortalized by Rousseau, as well as ren-
dered famous by her unfortunate love for Abelard, was born about
iioi, and died in 1164. Her parents are unknown, but she lived
with her uncle, Fulbert, a canon of the cathedral of Paris. Her childhood
was passed in the convent of Argenteuil, but, as soon as she was old enough,
she returned to her uncle, who taught her to speak and write in Latin,
then the language used in literary and polite society. She is also said to
have understood Greek and Hebrew. To this education, very uncommon
at that time, Heloise added great beauty, and refinement, and dignity of
manner ; so that her fame soon spread beyond the walls of the cloister,
throughout the whole kingdom.
Just at this time, Pierre Abelard, who had already made himself ver>'
celebrated as a rhetorician, came to found a new school in that art in Paris,
where the originality of his principles, his eloquence, and his great physical
strength and beauty made a deep sensation. Here he saw Heloise, and
commenced an acquaintance with her by letter ; but, impatient to know
her more intimately, he proposed to Fulbert that he should receive him
into his house, which was near Abelard' s school. Fulbert was avaricious,
and also desirous of having his niece more thoroughly instructed, and
these two motives induced him to consent to Abelard' s proposal, and to
request him to give lessons in his art to Heloise. He even gave Abelard
permission to use physical punishment towards his niece, if she should
prove rebellious.
** I cannot," says Abelard, '* cease to be astonished at the simplicity of
Fulbert ; I was as much surprised as if he had placed a lamb in the power
of a hungry wolf. Heloise and I, under pretext of study, gave ourselves
wholly to love ; and the solitude that love seeks, our studies procured for
us. Books were open before us ; but we spoke oftener of love than phi-
losophy, and kisses came more readily from our lips than words."
The canon was the last to perceive this intimacy, although he was often
194
HELOISE.
told of it, and heard daily the songs that Abelard composed for Heloise
sung through the streets. When he did discover the truth, he was deeply
incensed, and sent Abelard from the house. But he contrived to return,
and carr>' off Heloise to Palais, in Brittany, his native country. Here she
gave birth to a son, surnamed Astrolabe from his beauty, who passed his
life in the obscurity of a monastery.
The flight of Heloise enraged Fulbert to the highest degree ; but he
was afraid to act openly against Abelard, lest his niece, whom he still loved,
might be made to suffer in retaliation. At length Abelard, taking compas-
sion on his grief, sent to him, implored his forgiveness, and offered to marry
Heloise, if the union might be kept secret, so that his reputation as a relig-
ious man should not suffer. Fulbert consented to this, and Abelard went
to Heloise for that purpose ; but Heloise, unwilling to diminish the future
fame of Abelard, by marriage, which must be a restraint upon him, refused
to listen to him. She quoted the precepts and the example of all learned
men, sacred and profane, to prove to him that he ought to remain free and
untrammeled. She also warned him that her uncle's reconciliation was
loo easily obtained, and that it was but a feint to entrap him more surely.
But Abelard was resolute and Heloise returned to Paris. There they were
s^f>n after married.
FuUxfrt did not keep his promise of secrecy, but spoke openly of the
n^rriage, concerning which, when she heard of it, a protest came from
Hdoise that it had never taken place. This made lur uncle treat her so
<^elly, that Abelard, either to protect her from his violence, or to prove
^hatihe announcement of the marriage was false, took her himself to the
<^'nvent of Argenteuil, where he ordered her to take the veil.
Twelve years passed without Heloise ever having mentioned the name
"^Mxlard. She became prioress of Argenteuil, aiul subsequently lived a
''•i<^' of complete retirement. Abelard, hearing of her homeless situation, left
Brituny and went to place Heloise in the little oratory of the I^iraclete,
which had been founded by him. Here Heloise exerted herself to the
*^^n^t to build up a convent, and was n warded with unusual success.
She rarely appeared in public, hut devoted lierself almost wholly to
prayer and meditation. She died May 17, 1 164.
i
^i)
THE COUNTESS OK TRIPOLI.
Twelfth Century A. D.
DISTINGUISHED FOR BEAUTY AND KINDLINESS.
HE knights who had returned from the Holy Land spoke with enthu-
siasm of a Countess of Tripoli, who had extended to them the most
generous hospitality, and whose grace and beauty equaled her
virtue. Geoffrey Rudel, a gentleman of Blieux, in Provence, and one of
those who were presented to Frederick Barbarossa in 1154, hearing this
account, fell deeply in love with her without having seen her, and prevailed
upon one of his friends, Bertrand d'Allaman, a troubadour like himself, to
accompany him to the Levant.
In II 62 he quitted the court of England, whither he had been con-
ducted by Geoffrey, the brother of Richard L, and embarked for the Holy
Land. On his voyage he was attacked by a severe illness, and had lost the
power of speech when he arrived at the port of Tripoli. The countess,
being informed that a celebrated poet was dying of love for her on board a
vessel which was entering the roads, visited him on shipboard, took him by
the hand, and attempted to cheer his spirits.
Rudel, wc are assured, recovered his speech sufficiently to thank the
countess for her humanity, and to declare his passion, when his expressions
of gratitude were silenced by the convulsions of death.
He was buried at Tripoli, beneath a tomb of porphyry, which the
countess raised to his memory, with an Arabic inscription.
The transcribed verses, "On Distant Love," which he composed pre-
vious to this voyage, began thus : —
** Angry and sad shall be my way,
If I behold not her afar;
And yet I know not when that day
Shall rise, for still she dwells afar.
God, who has formed this fair array
Of worlds, and placed my love afar,
Strengthen my heart and hope, I pray,
Of seeing her I love afar.'*
196
ELEANOR OK AQUITAINE.
A. I>. 1122-1204.
QUEEN OF LOUIS VII. OF FRANCE.
rj^UEEN ELEANOR succeeded her father, William X., in 1137, in
T^C the fine duchy which at that time composed Gascony, Saintonge,
and the comt6 de Poitou. She married the same year Louis
VII., king of France, and went with him to the Holy Land. She soon
gave him cause for jealousy, from her intimacy with her uncle, Raymond,
ct)unt of Poitiers, and with Saladin ; and after many bitter quarrels they
wtte divorced under pretense of consanguinity, in 1152. Six weeks after-
wards, Eleanor married Henry II., duke of Normandy, afterwards king of
England, to whom she brought in dowry Poitou and Guienne.
Eleanor had four sons and a daughter by her second husband. In
1162, she gave Guienne to her second son, Richard Coeur de Lion, who
did homage for it to the king of France. She died in 1204. She was very
Mous of her second husband and showed the greatest animosity to all
whom she regarded as rivals. She incited her sons to rebel against their
father, and was, in consequence, thrown into prison, where she was kept
^'•r sixteen years.
In her youth she was remarkably beautiful, and in the later years of her
^^ned life she showed evidences of a naturally noble disposition. As soon
•*> >he wa> lilxTated from her prison, which was done by order of her son
l^ichard on his accession to the throne, he placed her at the head of the
s'^vernment. No doubt she bitterly felt the utter neglect she had suffered
durinjT her imj)risonment : yet she did not, when she obtained power, use
^^ ^"pui^i^h her enemies, but rather devoted herself to deeds of mercy and
I'i<ty. jToing from city to city, setting free all persons contined for violating
^"'" jiiame laws, which, in the latter part of Henry's life, were cruelly
'■"'"reed. Miss .Strickland thus closes her interesting biography of this
f'^^utihil but unfortunate queen : " Eleanor oi Aquitaine is among the
ver}* few women who have atoned for an ill-spent youth by a wise and
'•enevolent old age. As a sovereign she ranks among the greatest of female
njlers."
197
BKRENQARIA OK NAVARRE.
Twelfth Century A. D.
WIFE OF RICHARD THE LION HEARTED.
J^ERENGARIA of Navarre was a daughter of Sancho the Wise, king
J^ of Naples, and married Richard Coeur de Lion soon after he as-
cended the throne of England. Richard had been betrothed, when
only seven years of age, to Alice, daughter of Louis VIL, who was three
years old. Alice was sent to the English court for her education.
The father of Richard Coeur de Lion, Henry IL, fell in love with the
betrothed of his son, and had prevented the marriage from being solem-
nized. But Richard, after he ascended the throne, was still trammeled by
this engagement to Alice, while he was deeply in love with Berengaria. At
length these obstacles were overcome. * ' It was in the joyous month of
May, 1 191," to quote an old writer, "in the flourishing and spacious isle
of Cyprus, celebrated as the very abode of the goddess of love, did King
Richard solemnly take to wife his beloved lady, Berengaria."
This fair queen accompanied her husband on his warlike expedition to
the Holy Land. In the autumn of the same year Richard concluded his
peace with Saladin, and set out on his return to England. But he sent
Berengaria by sea, while he, disguised as a Templar, intended to go by
land. He was taken prisoner and kept in durance by Leopold of Austria
nearly five years.
Richard's profligate companions seem to have estranged his thoughts
from his gentle, loving wife, and for nearly two years after his return from
captivity, he gave himself up to the indulgence of his baser passions ; but
finally, his conscience was awakened, he sought his ever faithful wife, and
she, womanlike, forgave him. From that time they were never parted till
his death, which occurred in 1199.
She survived him many years, founded an abbey at Espan, and devoted
herself to works of piety and mercy. "From her early youth to her
grave, Berengaria manifested devoted love to Richard. Uncomplaining
when deserted by him, forgiving him when he returned, and faithful to his
memory unto death."
198
BLANCHE DF CASTILE. .
©♦o
RBproducBd frDrn tha painting of G-BDrges
Moreau, French figure painter, and pupil of
Cab an el. Mareau has painted numernus "w/orthy
pictures, of v/hich probably the best known are
"Potlphar's Wife," " Death of Cleopatra," "The
Family." and " Rn Egyptologist." He was
hanored -y^th a riisdal by the Paris Salon,
^Tr^^
BLANCHK OF CASTILE.
BLANCHE OK CASTILB.
A. D. 1187-1252.
GUARDIAN QUEEN OF FRANCE.
j^LANCHE of Castile, queen of France, was the daughter of Alphonso
13 IX., king of Castile, and of Eleanor, daughter of Henry I. of
England. In 1200 she was married to Louis VIII. of France ; and
became the mother of nine sons and two daughters, whom she edu-
cated with great care, and in such sentiments of piety, that two of them,
Louis IX- and Elizabeth, have been beatitied by the Church of Rome.
On the death of her husband in 1226, he showed his esteem for her by
lea\ii^ her sole regent during the minority of his son, Louis IX., then only
twelve years old, and Blanche justified by her conduct in the trying cir-
cumstances in which she was placed, the confidence of her husband. The
princes and nobles, pretending that the regency was unjustly granted to a
woman, confederated against her ; but by her prudence and courage, op-
posing some in arms, Jind gaining over others with presents and condescen-
sions, Blanche finally triumphed. She made use of the romantic passion
ot the young Count of Champagne to obtain information of the projects of
the malcontents ; but her reputation was endangered by the favor she
showed him, as well as by the familiar intercourse to which she admitted
^gallant Cardinal Romani.
In educating Louis she was charged witli putting him too much in the
h*ndsof the clergy: but she proved an excellent guardian of his virtue,
*"<J. in 1234, she married him to Margaret, tiaughter of the Count de
'**>vcnce ; and in 1235, Louis having reached tlie age of twenty-one,
^"C surrendered to him the sovereign authority. Hut even alter this, she
attained great ascendency over the young king, of wliich >he sometimes
"^de an improper use.
When, in 124.S, Louis undertook a crusade to the Holy Land, he
"^Iwmined to take his (pieen with him and leave his nic»ther regent. In
WK second regency she showed the same vigor and prudence as in the
^^^' The kingdom had sutiVrrd so nuieh from the domination of the
pritslhood, that vigorous measures had become necessary ; and notwith-
201
PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT.
A. D. 1812-1369.
FOUNDER OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.
♦> » €4
FHILIPPA of Hainault was the daughter of the Earl of Hainault,
married Edward IIL, king of England, in 1327. In 1346, wO
after the victorious battle of Cressy, Edward lay before Ca
David Bruce, king of Scotland, invaded the north of England, and rava
the country as far as Durham. He was there met by Queen Philippe
the head of twelve thousand men, commanded by Lord Percy. Aft
fierce engagement, the Scots were entirely defeated, and their king
many of the nobility taken prisoners. As soon as Philippa had seci
her royal captive, she crossed the sea to Dover, and was received in
English camp, before Calais, with all the 6clat due to her rank and her
tory. Here her intercession is said to have saved the lives of six citizer
Calais, who were condemned to death by Edward.
Philippa' s conduct was marked by wisdom and generosity, and she
on all important occasions the confidant and adviser of her husband,
died before Edward, leaving several children, the eldest of whom was
celebrated Black Prince.
Philippa is said to have founded Queen's College, Oxford ; but
agency in establishing a manufacturing colony of Flemings at Norwich
the year 1335, was of far greater importance to the prosperity of the nat
"Blessed be the memory of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault,
queen, who first invented clothes," says a monastic chronicler. He m<
that, by the advice of the queen, the English first manufactured cloth.
Philippa was also the friend and patroness of Chaucer and Froissart.
Bianclne of Costllt^ continued.
Standing her strong religious feelings, she exerted her utmost power aga
the tyranny of the priests and in favor of the people.
The unfortunate defeat and imprisonment of her son in the East sc
fected her spirits that she died, in 1252, to his great grief, and the rei
of the whole kingdom. She was buried in the Abbey of Maubisson.
202
NIARY.
Thirteenth Century A. D.
AN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON POETESS.
^^ARY, who attained considerable prominence among the Anglo-
\ T / Norman Trotiveurs, in the thirteenth century, may be regarded as
the Sappho of her age. Unfortunately she mentions but few cir-
cumstances respecting herself ; she informs us only that she was born in
France, without specifying in what province. She appears to have resided
in England at the beginning of the thirteenth century, but does not speak
o( the motive which led her thither.
It may be conjectured that she was a native of Normandy, for her
language is neither that of Poitou nor of (}ascony, the other provinces
under the dominion of the English. She was versed in the literature of
Bretagne, from whose writers she frequently borrowed, and it is by no
means improbable that she acquired the knowledge of both the Armoric
Md English languages in Britain. She was also mistress of the Latin.
Her attainments afford testimony not merely of her capacity and talents,
iHit seem likewise to imply a rank of life that allowed, with leisure, the
means of study. Her Christian name only is mentioned, and the reader is
left in ctjual ignorance concerning her patrons.
Hit first jK)ems are a collection of lays, in French verse, forming various
niitories and adventures of brave and gallant knights. The stories are
generally remarkable for a singular or wonderful catastrophe. They con-
^'tute the largest, and at the same time most ancient, si)ecinien of Anglo-
^o^man poetry of the kind that has come down to the present age.
The I^ys of Mary are twelve in number, and dedicated to some king,
^Wname is left to conjecture.
The smaller poems of Mary are important in giving us a wider knowl-
^gc of ancient chivalr\', and the writer appears to have possessed, with a
refined taste, great sensibility : her subjects are all melancholy ; she
t'Hiches and melts the heart of her readers, and seems to ha\ e had at call
^1 the passions of the mind. The third work of Mary is a tale in French
^CTseof St. Patrick's Purgatory.
203
ELIZABETH OF HUNQARY.
A. D. 1207-1231.
THE SAINTLY PRINCESS.
/J) LIZABETH of Hungary, daughter of Andreas II., king of Hungary,
^^ was born at Presburg in 1207. At the age of four she was affianced
to the Landgraf of Thuringia, Louis IV. , and was brought to his court
in the Wartburg, near Eisenach, to be educated under the eyes of the parents
of her future husband. She early displayed ^ passion for the severities of
Christian life. She despised pomp and ambition, cultivated humility, and
exhibited the most self-denying benevolence ; her conduct even as a girl
astonished the Thuringian court. The marriage took place when Elizabeth
was fourteen. Louis, far from blaming the devout girl whom he had made
his wife, for her long prayers and ceaseless almsgiving, was himself partially
attracted to a similar mode of life. A boy and two girls were the fruit of
their union. Louis died as a crusader at Otranto in 1227.
Great misfortunes soon befell the saintly Elizabeth. She was deprived
of her regency by the brother of her deceased husband, and driven out of
her dominion on the plea that she wasted the treasure of the state by her
charities. At last she found refuge in the church, where her first care was
to thank God that he had judged her worthy to suffer.
When the warriors who attended her husband in the crusade returned
from the East, she gathered them around her, and recounted her sufferings.
Steps were taken to restore to the unfortunate princess her sovereign rights.
She declined tlie regency, however, and would only accept the revenues
which accrued to her as landgraxinc. The representations of other poten-
tates soon induced her brother-in-law to allow her to return to Marburg,
and to draw a yearly revenue of 500 marks.
She now devoted herself wholly to a life of asceticism, put on nun's
raiment, and took up her residence in a cottage at the foot of the hill on
which stood her castle of Marburg. The remainder of her days were given
up to incessant devotions, almsgivings, and mortifications. All her reve-
nues were given to the poor, and what she required for personal expendi-
tures she earned with her own hands. She died November 19, 1231.
204
BEATRICE PORTINARI.
A.D. 1266-1290.
INSPIRATION OF DANTE'S "DIVINE COMEDY."
T^C^'T^Td
BEATRICE PORTINARI is celebrated as the beloved of Dante, the
Italian poet. She was born at Florence in the year 1266, and is
said to have been very beautiful. The death of her noble father,
Folco Portinari, in 1 289, is said to have hastened her own. The history of
Beatrice may be considered as an affection of Dante — in that lies its sole
interest. All that can be authenticated of her is that she was a beautiful
and virtuous woman. She died in 1290, and yet she still lives in Dante's
immortal poem, of which her memory was the inspiration.
Beatrice was .seen by Dante only once or twi( e, and she probably knew
little of him. She married .Simone de' Hardi. Hut the worship of her lover
was stronger for the remoteness of its object.
He says in the conclusion of the Rime (his miscellaneous poems on the
subject of his early love) : " I beheld a marvelous vision, which has caused
me to cease from writing in praise of my blrssed Beatrice, until I can cele-
brate her more worthily ; which that I may do, I devote my whole soul to
study, as she knoweth well ; in so much, that if it |)leases tin- (ireat Disposer
of all events to prolonj^ my life for a few years upon this earth, 1 hope here-
after to sing of my Beatrici* what never yet was said or sung of any wo-
man. After the which may it seem good unto llini who is the master of
grace that my spirit should go lu net- to beliold the glory of its lady, to wit.
r>f that blessed Beatrice who now gl«»riously gazes on the countenance of
Him qui est per omnia sircula brnni ictus.''
In the *' Convito " he resumes tht story of his life.
It was in this transport of enthusiasm iJKit Dantc" conceived the idea of
the ** Divina Commedia," his great poem, <>f which his Beatrice was des-
tined to \yc the heroine. Tluis to the inspiration of a young, beautiful.
and noble-minded woman, we owe one of the grandest efforts of human
genius; probiibly the most p<rtret ti.»nsti«^uiatinn <»I the unseen worlds in
any language.
^06
LAURA DB SADK.
A. D. 1308-1348.
IMMORTALIZED BY THE POET PETRARCH.
^^'r^::-:zt=s,> -
£^ AURA, the blessed of Petrarch, is better known by that title, than by
^^ her own name of Laura de Noyes. She was bom at Avignon, and
married Hugo de Sade. Petrarch first saw her in 1327, and con-
ceived a passion for her which histed during her Hfe ; yet her chastity has
never been called in question. Petrarch wrote three hundred and eighteen
sonnets and eighty-eight songs, of which Laura was the subject. She died
of the plague in 1348, aged thirty-eight. She is said to have had a grace-
ful figure, a sweet \oice, a noble and distinguished appearance, and a coun-
tenance which inspired tenderness.
The poetry of Petrarch ga\e Laura a wide celebrity during her lifetime.
It is recorded that the king of Hoheniia, arriving at Avignon, sought out
this well-sung lady and kissed her on the forehead in token of homage.
All this may appear ver\' i)Ieasant ; romantic young women may even
account Laura a very fortunate being : but there is a dark side to the pic-
ture. The husband of Laura was not pleased with the notoriety which the
devotion of Petrarch conferred on the object of his passion or his poetry-.
Though these marks of attachment were pure and unobtrusive and often
repressed by the coKlness of Laura, yet they awakened a keen sense of
jealousy and distrust in her husband : and though no real infidelity of his
wife was ever disco\eretl, still the chords of domestic happiness became dis-
sonant, and life's sweetest harmonies were lost.
The children of this ill- matched couple showed either that their train-
ing was neglected, or their natural gifts \\ere very mediocre ; both conse-
(juences unfavorable to the character of their mother.
Though not insensible of her inherited weakness, her last moments were
occupied by tlu* sul)limest considerations. She expired gently, and without
struggle, like a lamp whose oil is gradually wasted. On the same day, at
vespers, her body was carried to the church of the P'ranciscans, and in-
terred in the chapel dc la Croix, built by her husband.
y.
a.®
LAURA AND PETRARCH.
RaprDducBd fram the painting nf Vacslav
Brozlk, a Hnhaniian history paintar. Brozik
was succBSsivBly a pupil of the Pragua ilcad-
amy, Pilnty's Munich Acadamy, and nf Mun-
kacsy In Paris. The Paris Salon awarded hini
a madal in 1B7B.
"Q-^
}
JANE OF FLANDERS. .
A. 11. 1310?. 1362.
COUNTESS OF MONTFORT.
ANE of Flanders was one of the most extraordinary women of her
age. Her husband, the Count of Montfort, havinj^ been, in 1342,
made prisoner and conducted to Paris, she assembled the inhabi-
^iints of Rennes to take up arms in her behalf. The movement was partici-
Ftcd in by all Brittany, and she soon found herself in a position to protect
"^^T rights. Having shut herself In the fortress of Hennebonne, Charles de
oiois^ her husband's enemy, besieged her there, after an obstinate defense,
^^ ^vhich the countess showed many of the cjualities of a commander.
The repeated breaclies made in the walls at length rendered it necessary
'^^r the l>esieged, who were diminished in numbers and exhausted by
fatigue, to treat for a capitulation. During a conference for that purpose,
m which the Bishop of Leon was engaged with Charles de Blois, the coun-
tv.'ss, who had mounted a high tower which commanded a view of the sea,
^k^cmii some sails at a distance, and immediately exclaimed, " Behold the
succors! the English succors ! no capitulation !"
The tiert prepared by Edward III. for the relit f of Hennebonne, hav-
ii\\^ been detained by contrary winds, entered the hari)or under the
command of Sir Walter Mauny. The garrison, by this reinforcement,
Animated with fresh spirits, immediately sallied forth, beat the ix'siegers
tr»»nuheir |)osts, and oi)liged them to decamp. The flames of war still con-
Unued their devastations, when Charles de Blois, having investe(l the fort-
rt-ss 0! Roche de Rien, the Countess of Montfort. reinforced by some
hn\ilsh troops, attacked him during the night in his entrenchments, dis-
I«r>.-d his army, and took him j^risoner.
The mediation of France and I'jigland failed to ])nt an end to the dis-
^"^^•^ in firittany. till Charles de Blois was at length slain, at the battle of
• "ray. Through the influence of his motlur, the young C^)unt de Mont-
^*^'n nficr obtained possession of tlu* (Inch v. and, though a zealous
•' ''^^^ '>f lin^huu], had his title acknowledged bv the French king, to
%/ /K'^mage for his dominions.
20!)
CATHARINE OF SIENA.
A. D. 1347-1380.
SAINT AND LITERARY CELEBRITY.
4 .000. >►
^^NATHARINE of Siena was born in Siena in 1347, and early devoted
^^^ herself to an austere life. The monks relate of this saint that she
became a nun of the Dominic at the age of seven, that she saw
numberless visions, and wrought many miracles while quite* young, that she
conversed face to face with Christ, and was actually married to him.
In 1365 she received the habit of the third order of St. Dominic, and
soon became celebrated for her recluse life, revelations, and miraculous
powers of conversion. Her influence was so great that she reconciled
Pope Gregory XI. to the people of Avignon, in 1376, after he had excom-
municated them ; and in 1377 she prevailed upon him to reestablish the
pontifical seat at Rome, sexenty years after Clement V. had removed it to
France.
These public events in her life are hardly less extraordinary and surpris-
ing than those which obtained for her the preeminence of saintship.
Especially the latter. To put an end to the papal court of Avignon, and to
bring back the papacy to Italy, had been urgently pressed by both Petrarch
and Dante, as well as by the French cardinals and the king of France ; but
without avail. The French pope's own prejudices and wishes were even
enlisted in opposition to removal. It was under such circumstances that
Catharine tried her powers of persuasion and succeeded in moving the
center of Europe back again to its old place in Rome after the princes of the
Church and the greatest men of Italy had attempted it in vain.
One legend, among many which have sprung up and attached themselves
to the life of this saint, is likely to cause most readers to feel an interest in
her name. It is said that in revenge for the discomfiture of a company of
heathen philosophers, with whom she had been compelled to dispute, the
holy and learned lady was bound to a wheel with spikes, in such way that
every turn of the machine would cause the spikes to pierce her body. But
the cords were miraculously broken, and the malice of her enemies foiled.
Hence St. Catharine, virgin and martyr, is always represented with awheel,
210
JULIANA BERNERS.
b. 1388? A. D.
FOUNDER OF SOPEWELL NUNNERY.
JLT-IANA Beniers, prioress of Sopewell nunnery, near St. Albans, Eng-
land, was the daujjhter of Sir James Berners, who was beheaded in the
reign of Richard II. She was celebrated for her beauty, her spirit,
3nd her passion for field sports, while historically the claim has been made
'^t she was the earliest female' writer in the English language.
She wrote, **The Boke of Hawkyng and Huntyng," which was one of
^^^ first works that issued from the English press. A later edition was
issued in 1810 by Haslewood, containing an examination of her claims to
be rt.'garded as the first female writer in English.
The indelicacies that are found in her book must be imputed to the
^Tossness and Ixirbarism of the times in which she lived. She attained to
an advanced age, and was highly respected and admired. The information
V>uchinj^ the incidents of her life is exceedingly scanty, and must be largely
drawn from her works.
Catharine of Sit?na continued.
and the extn-me popularity of this saint is indicated by the fact that a wheel
^•^ a certain construction and appearance is to the present day called a
^athariiK' wheel. She died April 30, 1380, and was canoaized in 1461.
Her (i(-ith occurred in Rome.
rather Raimondo, who was then at (ieneva, declares that in that city,
at the hour of her death, he heard a voice communicating to him a last
message (roni Catharine, which hr afterwards found she uttered on her
JeathU^l word for word as he lu-ard it
"^*r literary works consist of letters, poems, and devotional pieces.
^ k*llers are by far the most interesting and valuable of lur reputed
^**rks, and are 373 in munber. Many are addressed to kings, popes,
cardinals, bishops, conventual bodies, and i)olitical corporations, and
exhibit eloquence, exalted piety, no])le sentiments, and sound argumenta-
^»'»n, as well as many philological excellencies.
211
L
CATHARINE OF VALOIS.
A. II. 1401-1437.
QUEEN OF HENRY V. OF FRANCE.
._ — j.^.j
^^ATHARINE of Valois, surnanied the Fair, was the youngest child
\WM of Charles VL and Isabelle of Bavaria. She was born October
Y 27, 1 401, at the Hotel de St. Paul, Paris, during her father's in-
terval of insanity. She was entirely neglected by her mother, who joined
with the king's brother, the Duke of Orleans, in pilfering the revenues of
the household. On the recover)' of Charles, Isabelle fled with the Duke of
Orleans to Milan, followed by her children, who were pursued and brought
back by the Duke of Burgundy.
Catharine was educated in the convent at Poissy, where her sister Marie
was consecrated, and was married to Henry V. of England, June 3, 1420.
Henry V. had previously conquered nearly the whole of France, and
received with his bride the promise of the regency of France, as the king
was again insane, and, on the death of Charlei=. VI., the sovereignty of
that country, to the exclusion of Catharine's brother and three older sisters.
Catharine was crowned in 142 1, and her son, afterwards Henry VI., was
born at Windsor in the same year, during the absence of Henry V. in
France. The queen joined her husband in Paris in 1422, leaving her infant
son in England, and was with him when he died at the castle of Vincennes,
in August, 1422.
Some years afterward Catharine married Owen Tudor, an officer of
Welsh extraction, who was clerk of the (jueen's wardrobe. This marriage
was kept concealed several years, and Catharine, who was a devoted
mother, seems to have lived very ha|)pily with her husband. Her children
were torn from her, which act of cruelly j^robably hastened her death.
She died in 1437.
The nuns who |)iously attended her, declared that she was a sincere
peniteiU. She had disregarded the injunction of ht-r royal husband, Henry
W, in choosing Windsor as the birthplace of the heir of F'ngland ; and she
had never believed the prediction, that ** Henry of Windsor shall lose all
that Henry of Moimiouth had gained." But during her illness she became
fearful of the result, and sorely repented her disobedience to her husband.
212
JOAN OF ARC.
Reproduced from the painting by Mme. Zoc Laure de Chatillon.
JOAN OK ARC.
A. I>. 1410-1431.
FRENCH HEROINE AND MARTYR.
JOAN OF ARC f Jeanne crArc), a famous heroine, was born January
6, 1410, in the village of Domremy in Lorraine, France, of poor but
decent and pious parents. She was their fifth child, and, owing to the
indigence of her father, received no instruction, but was accustomed to out-
of-door duties, such as the tending of the shei'p and the riding of the horses
to and from the watering places. The neighborliood of Domremy abounded
in superstitions, and at the same time sympathized with the Orleans party
in the divisions which rent the kingdom of P>anc(». Joan shared both in
the political excitement and the religious enthusiasm ; imaginative and
dwout, she loved to meditate on the legends of the Virgin, ond especially,
it seems, dwelt upon a current prophecy that a virgin sliould relieve France
of her enemies.
At the age of thirteen she began to believe herself the subject of siijier-
wiural visitations, siK)ke of voices tliat she heard and of visions that she
^*'; and, at eighteen, was possessed by the idea that she was called to
Jdiver her country and crown her king. Her pretensions were, at first,
treated with much scorn and derision. The fortunes of the dau|)hin. how-
*^^'^*r, were desperate, and she was sent to Chin »n. wlu-re Cliarles held his
^'"ft. Introduced into a crowd of conrtirrs from whom the king was
•^"Jistir^ished, she is said to have singlrd him out at once. Her claims
*^"'"t submitted to a severe scrutiny. She wa^ handed ovir to an ccdesias-
ti^'sl commission, and sent to I*oiticrs for examination by thr sexeral facul-
''winthe famous university there. Xo ividnuc inificating that shi- was a
'Merin the black art, and the fact of her \irginity n-moxinji; all suspicions
"'her being under sa tan ic intluenr<-, Ikt wish to had tin- army of her kini4
"'^> granted.
A suit of armor was made for her, a ronsr(rat<'(l sword which she
''Scribed as buried in tht! (^hurch of St. C'atharini' at l''i«rb«»i>. was brouojn
^'^J placfii in her hands. Thus (.([uiiJin-d slu- \n\\ lur^ill at tlu- hrad of
^".'^'o troops under the generalship of Dunois, thrrw herself upf»n the
•^15
JOAN OF ARC.
English who were besieging Orleans, routed them, and in a week force
them to raise the siege. Other exploits followed. In three months Charh
was crowned king at Rheims, the '* Maid of Orleans" standing in full arm(
at his side. Her promised work was done.
Dunois, however, was unwilling to lose her influence and urged her t
remain with the army, and she did so ; but her victories were over. In a
attack on Paris in the early winter (1429) she wa^ repulsed and woundet
In the spring of the next year she was taken prisoner, and was at one
carried to the Due de Luxembourg's fortress at Beauvais. An attempt t
escape by leaping from a dungeon wall was unsuccessful, and she was take
to Rouen. Here she was tried for sorcery and convicted. The papei
were sent from Rouen to Paris, and the verdict of the. University of Par
was unanimous that such acts and sentiments as hers were diabolical, an
merited the punishment of fire.
Sentence of condemnation was read to her publicly on a scaffold^ by th
Bishop of Beauvais, and the alternative offered of submission to the Chord
or, the stake. The terrified girl murmured a recantation, put her mar
to a confession, and was taken back to prison. Here she heard he
"voices" again ; her visions returned. A man's apparel being left in he
cell to tempt her, she put it on ; the Bishop of Beauvais seized upon tli
act as a virtual relapse into her old unbelief, and hastened the executio
of the first sentence. A huge i)ile of wood was erected in the mark<
place of Rouen, and, surrounded by a vast assembly of soldiers and eccles
astics, Joan of Arc was burned on the last day of May, 1431. The Seiii
carried her ashes to the sea.
The infamy of this transaction lies heavily upon all concerned with it
upon the Burgundians who gave her up ; upon the English who allowe
her execution ; upon the French who did the deed, and the French wh
would not prevent it. and upon the king who did nothing to avenge her.
The character of the "Maid of Orleans" was spotless. She was di*
tinguished for her |)urity, innocence, and modesty. Her hand never she
blood. The gentle dignity of her bearing impressed all who knew her, an
restrained the brutality of her soldiers. She must ever be sanely estimate
as a " martyr to her religion, her country, and her king."
216
JOAN BBAUFORT.
m. A. D. 1423. d. 1446.
QUEEN MOTHER OF JAMES II. OF SCOTLAND.
J^^Xuas thif eldest daughter of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset (son
of John of Gaunt ) and of Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Kent.
She was seen by James, son of Robert III., king of Scotland,
while ho was detained a prisoner in the Tower of London, and he fell pas-
^«<>naiely in love with her. On his release, in 1423, after nineteen years*
captivity, he married Joan, and went with her to Edinburgh, where they
»^Te crowned. May 22, 1424. James then immediately commenced that
vigorous administration which had become necessary through the bad
K*>vernmcnt of his predecessors. In 1430, Joan became the mother of
J'inies, afterwards James 11. of ScoUand.
Joiin jK)ssessed a strong influence, which she always exercised on the
i^idcof mercy and gentleness. In 1437, the queen received information of
^ ct.nspiracy formed against the life of her husband, the head of which was
•^»rR()lx.Ti (iraham, and hastened to Roxburgh, where the king then was,
^' warn him of the danger. Not being well supported by his associates,
»rahani. who was actuated partly by personal and partly by political
"^"tUfs, was baffled, imprisoned and banished, and his estates seized. In
^'^'' '^i)s'hlands. whither he had fled, he formed new |)lans. The king imnie-
(.uidy t(M>k refuge with his wife in the I )ominican abbey near Perth; i)ut
'"<' ^'onspiratr)rs. having bribed a domestic, found their way into the room,
'hf (jutt-n threw herself between them and her husband, but in vain ;
^^l<r nrt.-iving two wounds she was torn from tiic arms ol James I., who
■*aN rmir(|(;rt.tj February 21. 1437. James had made an heroic resistance,
tnoiiahai i^^[ Yi^. Ix^gged his life of the assassin, (iraham.
J"an married, a second time, James Stuart, called the Black Knight, son
"I Lnrd I^orne. to whom >hv bore a son. afterwards Earl of Athol. She
(i^^'m 1446, and was buried at Perth, near the body of the king, her first
■''I'^band. H<-r life exemplihed nian\ womanly \ irtues. a serene dignity,
ami a surpassing courage.
2ir
AGNES SOREL.
A. D. 14091449.
"THE FAIREST OF THE FAIR/
f^ GNES SOREL was oorn in Fonncnteaii, in Lorraine, and became
^^1 maid of honor to Isabella of Lorraine, sister-in-law of the queen of
Charles VII. of France. The king became enamored of her, and
at last abandoned the cares of government for her society. But Agnes
aroused him from enervating repose to deeds of glory, and induced him to
attack the English, who were then ravaging France. She maintained her
influence over him till her death, 1449, at the age of thirty-nine. Some
have falsely reported that she was poisoned by orders of the dauphin,
Louis XL From her beauty, she was called the fairest of the fair ; be-
sides beauty she possessed great mental powers.
Agnes Sorel bore three daughters to Chark'^ \'II., who were openly
acknowledged by him.
She herself relates that an astrologer, whom she had previously in-
structed, being admitted to her presence, s;iid before Ciiailes, that unless
the stars were deceivers she had inspired a lasting passion in a great
monarch. Turning to the king Agnes said, "Sire, suffer me to fulfill my
destiny, to retire from your court to that of the king of England ; Henry,
who is about to add to his own the crown you relincpii^h, is doubtless the
object ()f this pn-dirtion." The severity of this reproof rtTrctually aroused
Charles from his indolence and supineness.
Th(* tomb of Agnes was strewed with flowers by the prK-ts of France,
Even Louis, when he came to the throne, was far from treating her memory
with disrespec t. The canons of Loches, from a servile desire to gratify the
reigning monarch, had, notwithstanding her lil>eralities to the Church, pro-
posi'd tt> destroy her mausoleum. Louis reproved them ft»r their ingrati-
tude, ordered them to fulfill all her injunctions, and added six thousand
livres t«) the charitable donations which she had originally made. Francis
I. honored and cherished her memory, and dedicated several poetical effu-
sions to it.
218
MARGARET OK ANJOU.
A. D. 14^-1481.
QUEEN OF HENRY VII OF ENGLAND
"\ i ARGARET of Anjou, queen of Enj^laiid, was born at Pont-iVMous-
JV-L son, a castie in Lorraine, March 23, 1429, and died at the chateau
of Dampierre, August 25, 148 1. Her childhood was passed amid
many troubles that befell her family, in Italy, France, and Lorraine. As a
Pniven^al princess, she was well educated, and at an early period of her
lite manifested considerable talent.
Report of Margaret's beauty reached Henry VH. of England from a
gentleman of Anjou, who acted under the inspiration of Cardinal Beaufort,
and her i)ortrait was obtained for his inspection. This decided the king's
action, and commissioners were appointed to negotiate a truce with France
and Burgundy, Charles VH. favoring the marriage of Henry and Mar-
garet, with the view of making it the basis of peace between France and
Knjrlind.
The Earl of Suffolk had the chief part in the transaction on the English
swe. and the ceremony by proxy was arranged to take place at Nantz in
N'^vember, 1444. Margaret did not reach F^ngland until the next April.
'" ^447. f»ccurred the death of the Duke of (iloucester, of which she has
"^" considered guilty by some historians, but without evidence. Sue
^»m became unpopular, and the English connected the loss of their French
P^iis^^-ssions with Iut marriage.
Marj^aret's only child, a son, was said by her enemies to be either
^^ <jfepring f)f adultery, or a suj^posititious child. Prince Edward was
o^'m while his father was suffering from one of his tits (»f inil)r(Mlity, and
»ncn ihequet-n was at the head of the g()\ernment. The Duke of ^'o^k
*•*-'' made protector, but on the rest(jration of the king's health In- was
<^i>nib>><'d^ wht-reupon he asserted his rights by an a|)j)('al to arms, and
the \orkists won the first battle of St. Albans, which re^tortd thmi t(^
P^^. Parliament censured the cjueen and her friends, but in 1456 Henry
assumed his rights, and the government was \ irtually in Margaret's hands.
Personal ill-feeling Ix'tween the cjueen and the I'-arl of Warwick caused
^ renewal of the war, and the Lancastrians were at tirsi \iet(»rious : but the
210
MARGARET OF ANJOU.
Yorkists rallied, defeated their foes, and obtained possession of the king's
person, who recognized York as his su accessor.
Margaret fled with her son, first to Wales, and thence to Scotland.
Receiving assistance from the Scotch, she returned to England, and was
joined by her supporters in the northern counties ; York advanced to op-
pose her, but was defeated and slain at Wakefield, the queen behaving wit);
cruelty after battle. Marching to London, she defeated Warwick in the
second battle of St. Albans, and released her husband.
The Londoners, disgusted with the ferocity of her northern troops, would
not admit her into their city, but recognized York's eldest son as king, by
the title of Edward lY. She retreated north and was followed by Edward.
The great battle of.Towton, 1461, was fatal to the Lancastrian cause. Mar-
garet fled to Scotland with her husband and son. Thence she went to France,
in the hope of obtaining aid from Louis XL, in which she met with little
success.
She returned again to .Scotland, and afterward went to Flanders. After
remaining some time at Bruges, .she took up her residence in her father's
dominions, where she superintended her son's education. She visited the
French court, at Tours, in 1469, during which time the daughter of the Earl
of Warwick was betrothed to the queen's son.
From now on, she continued to ])e buffeted al)out by the fortunes (often
misfortunes) of war until the battle of Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471, when
she fell into the hands of the \ ictor, her son having previously been
slain. Her husband was put to death a few weeks later. She was impris-
oned in the Tower, and afterwards at Windsor and Wallingford, until
November 3, 1475, when she was ransomed by Louis XI.. who paid 50,000
crowns for her liberty, her father having ceded Provence to him for the
purpose, and returned to her father's protection. She formally renounced
all the rights her English marriage had given her and resided in deep seclu-
sion at Reculee, near Angers, one of the i)()ssessions of her father, seldom
leaving that retreat.
Her last days were passed in the chateau of Dampierre, in suffering and
bitter regrets. .
220
MARQARBT BEAUFORT.
A. D. 1441-1509.
MOTHER OF HENRY VII. OF ENGLAND.
«s,i^^^.^^ -
^^ARGARET was the only daughter and heiress of John Beaufort,
^T^^ Duke of Somerset (grandson to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancas-
ter), by Margaret Beauchamp, his wife. She was born at Bletshoe
*n Bedfordshire, in 144 1. While very young she was married to Edmund
Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by whom she had a son named Henry, who
vas afterwards king of England, by the title of Henry VII.
On November 3, 1456, the Earl of Richmond died, leaving Margaret a
ven- young widow, and his son and heir, Henry, not al)ove fifteen weeks
old. Her second husband was Sir Henry Stafford, knight, second son of
ihe Duke of Buckingham, by whom she had no issue. Soon after the
death of Sir Henry Stafford, which happened about 1482, she married
Thomas. Lord Stanley, afterwards ICarl of Derby, who died in 1504. After
^pcndinji^ a life in successive acts of beneficence, she paid the great debt of
nature on June 29, 1509, in the first year of the reign of her grandson,
Henry VIII. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument
^*«i5 erected to her memory. It is of black marble, with her efiigy in
JsTit co|)p(.r . jjjid ti^^. head is encircled with a coronet.
Marj^aret was cel-jbrated for her dev(Uion and charity, though slightly
""^^ with asceticism. She rose at five.- in ihr morning, and from that hour
'Jniil dinner, which in those davs was at ten, spent her time in prayer and
"^-'htaiion. In lur house she kepi constantly tuilve poor persons, whom
^^^ provided with food and clothing : and although tlK- mother of a king,
"""^^n ttas her acti\e benevolence that she was often seen dressing the wounds
•^^ the l«)tt(H;t mendicants, and relieving them by her skill in medicine. She
3'^' evinced her respect for learning, both bv her own works, and bv numif-
''■*'^t end(>wments for its encouragement. She was a mother to the slu-
«'ntN of both universities, and a patroness to all the learned men of
Ln^'laml. Two public lectures in (li\inily were institiit<<l by her. one at
Oxforrj an(^| another at Cambridge ; but thox- gciurons efforts wrw sur-
pa-^scfj hy luT last and noblest foundations, the colK-^es of Christ and .St.
j"hn in the latter university.
ISABELLA.
A. 1>. 14ffl.l504.
FRIEND AND SUPPORTER OF COLUMBUS.
.4. SA BELLA of Castile was born in Madrij^al, April 22, 1451. She was
•!• the daiigliter of John IL of Castile by his second wife, Isabella of
Portugal, and was therefore descended, through both parents, from
the famous John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
Until her twelfth year, Isabella lived with her* mother in retirement in
th(» small town of Arevalo. After numerous intrigues on the part of her
royal sponsors to contract political marriages that were distasteful to her,
she finally married, in 1469, Ferdinand V., king of Aragon, whose suit
both policy and affection inclined her to accept.
After the death of her brother Henry IV., in 1474, she ascended the
throne of Castile, to the exclusion of her elder sister, Joanna, who had
the rightful claim to the crown. During 'the lifetime of her brother, Isa-
bella had gained the favor of the estates of the kingdom to such a degree
that the majority, on his death, declared for her. From the Others, the
victorious arms of her husband extorted acquiescence, in the -battle of
Toro, in 1476.
After the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were thus united, Ferdinand
and Isabella assumed the royal title of Spain. Thenceforward their for-
tunes were insc-parably blended. For some time they held a humble court
at Dueiias, and afterward they resided at Segovia.
With the. graces and eharms of her sex, Isabella united the courage of a
heroine, and th(r sagacity of a statesman and legislator. She was always
present at the transiution of state affairs and her name was placed beside
that of her husband in publi(* ordinances. The conquest of Granada, after
wiiirli the Moms were entirely expelled from Spain, and the discovery of
America, were, in a great degree, her work. When all others had heard
with in( redulity the scluine «)f Cnluml.)us. she recalled the wanderer to her
]>resenci.' with the words. ** I will assume the undertaking for my own
iT«»\\n of Castile, and am ready to pawn my jewels to defray the expenses
c/5
o
X
<
-J
*^ H IT rm^
ISABELLA HEARING CDLUMBUS.
ReprDducBd frnni the painting by Vacslav
Brazlk.
(Sbb "Laura and Fetrarch.")
ISABELLA.
of It, if the funds in the treasury should be found inadequate." In all her
undertakings, the wise cardinal Ximenes was her assistant.
She has been accused of severity, pride, and unbounded ambition ;
but these faults oftentimes promoted the welfare of the kingdom, as well as
developed her virtues and talents. A spirit like hers was necessary to
Humble the haughtiness of the nobles without exciting their hostility ; to
conquer Granada without letting loose the hordes of Africa on Europe ;
and to restrain the vices of her subjects, who had become corrupt by reason
ol the bad administration of the laws.
By the introduction of a strict ceremonial, which subsists to the present
day at the Spanish court, she succeeded in checking the haughtiness of the
numerous nobles about the person of the king, and in depriving them of
their pernicious influence over him. Private warfare, which had formerly
prevailed to the destruction of public tranquillity, she checked, and intro-
duced a vigorous administration of justice.
The ver>' sincerity of her piety and strength of her religious convictions
led her more than once, however, into great errors of state policy, which
bave never since been repaired, and into more than one act which offends
the moral sense of a more refined age.
In 1492. Pope Alexander VI. confirmed to the royal pair the title of
Catholic king, already conferred upon them by Innocent V'lII. The zeal
for the Roman Catholic religion, which procured them this title, gave rise
t<^ tht' inquisition, which was introduced into Spain in 1480, at the sugges-
ti«.>n of their confessor, Torquemada. This was followed by a wholesale
pn/scripiion <A the Jews and other acts of fanaticism which history has been
veiy slow to approve, though all historians agree in applauding her beauty,
virtue, piety, learning, and political wisdom.
J-sak-lla died in 1504, having extorted from her husband (of whom she
« as very jealous ) an oath that he would never marry again. She had five
childTt-n : Isabella, married to Kmmaniiel of Portugal; Jnan, a virtuous
prince, who died in 1497, aged 20 ; Juana, who married Philip, Archduke
of Austria, and who was the mother of the emperor Charles \'. : Maria,
tt bo espoused Emmanuel alter the death of her sister : and Catharine, the
uifeof Henr>' VIII. of England.
225
ANNE OF BEAUJEU.
A. D. 1462-1528.
TALENTED DAUGHTER OF LOUIS XL OF FRANCE.
(
QNNE of Beaujeu was born in 1462, and was early distinguished f<5r
genius, sagacity, and penetration, added to an aspiring temper. She
married Pierre de Bourbon, a prince of slender fortune and marked
indolence.
On his deathbed, Louis, as an exhibition of his confidence in the talents
of his daughter, bequeathed the reins of empire with the title of governess
to her, during the minority of her brother, Charles VI IL, a youth of four-
teen. Anne fully justified, by her capacity, the choice of her father.
Two competitors disputed the will of the late monarch and the preten-
sions of Anne ; her husband's brother, John, Duke of Bourbon, and Louis,
Duke of Orleans, presumptive heir to the crown ; but Anne conducted
herself with such admirable firmness and prudence that she obtained the
nomination of the states-general in her favor. By acts of popular justice,
she conciliated the confidence of the nation ; and she appeased the Duke de
Bourbon by bestowing upon him the sword of the constable of France,
which he had been long ambitious to obtain. But the Duke of Orleans was
not so easily satisfied. Having offended Anne by some passionate expres-
sions, she ordered him to be arrested ; but he fled to Brittany and sought
the protection of Francis II.
Anne became Duchess of Bourbon in 1488, by the death of John, her
husband's elder brother ; and though before this, Charles VIII. had assumed
the government, she always retained a place in the council of state. Charles
VIII., dying without issue in 1498, was succeeded by the Duke of Orleans,
who, notwithstanding the severity exercised towards him by Anne, still
continued her in the council.
The Duke de Bourbon, died in 1503 ; Anne survived him till November
14, 1522. They left one child, Susanne, heiress to the vast possessions of
the family of Bourbon, who married her cousin Charles de Montpensier,
constable of Bourbon.
226
ANNE OK BRETAONE.
A. D. 1476-1514.
PATRONESS OF LEARNING AND LITERATURE.
< — jat— >
vAJNNE of Bretagne, or Brittany, only daughter of Francis IL, Duke of
-••^ Bretagne, was born at Nantes, January 26, 1476. She was carefully
educated, and gave early indications of great beauty and intelli-
gence. When only five years old she was betrothed to Edward, Prince of
Wales, son of Edward IV. of England. But his tragical death, two years
after, dissolved the contract. The death of her father in 1490, which left
her an unprotected orphan, and heiress of a spacious domain, at the time
*'hen the Duke of Orleans was detained a prisoner by Anne of Beaujeu,
forced her to seek some other protector ; she was consequently married by
proxy to Maximilian, emperor of Austria. But Anne of Beaujeu deter-
nimed to obtain possession of Bretagne, and, despairing of conquering it
">' anns, resolved to accomplish her purpose by effecting a marriage be-
tween her young brother, Charles VIII. of France, and Anne of Bretagne,
who yielded a reluctant consent, and the marriage was celebrated, Decem-
ber 16, 149 1.
• ^nne soon became attached to her husband, who was an amiable
though a weak prince, and on his death, in 149S, she abandoned herself to
the deepest grief. She retired to her hereditary domains, where she af-
lected the rights of an independent sovereign.
Louis, Duke of Orleans, succeeded Charles VIII. under the title of
Louis XII., and soon renewed his former suit to Anne, who had never
entirely lost the preference she had once felt for him. The first use Louis
made of his regal power was to procure a dixorce from the unfortunate
Jeanne, daughter of Louis XL, who was personally deformed, and whom
he had been forced to marry. Jeanne, with the sweetness and resignation
that marked her whole life, submitted to the sentence and retired to a
convent. Soon after, Louis married Anne at Xantes.
Anne retained a strong influence over her husband throughout her
whole life, by her beauty, amiability, and the purity of her manners. She
was a liberal rewafder of merit, and patroness of learning and literature.
227
LUCRBZIA BORQIA.
m. 1493, <L 1519.
DAUGHTER OF POPE ALEXANDER VI.
■<»-» <>-
T ^UCREZIA, sister of Cesare Borgia, and daughter of Rodriguez
I Y Borgia, afterward Pope Alexander VI., was married in 1493 to
Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, with whom she lived four years.
Her father, upon his accession to the Holy See, dissolved the marriage and
gave her to Alphonso, Duke of Bisceglia. On this occasion she was created
Duchess of Spoleto and of Sermoneta. She had one son by Alphonso,
who died young. In June, 1500, Alphonso was stabbed to death by assas-
sins, supposed to have been employed by the infamous Cesare Borgia.
Lucrezia has never been accused of any participation in this murder, or in
any of her brother's atrocious deeds. She then retired to Nepi, but was
recalled to Rome by her father, and toward I he end of 1501 was married to
Alphonso d'Este, Duke of. Ferrara.
This third marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and marked a new
era in her career. When Alphonso was absent in the field of battle he in-
trusted her with the government, in which capacity she gained general
approbation. She became a patroness of literature, and lived with wise
discretion. Her conduct while living at Rome with her father has been
the subject of much obloquy, which seems to rest chiefly on her living
in a flagitious court among profligate scenes. No individual charge can be
substantiated against her. On the contrary she is mentioned by contem-
porary poets and historians in the highest terms. Many of the reports
about her were circulated by the Neapolitans, the natural enemies of her
family. She died at Ferrara in 15 19. In the Ambrosian Library there is a
collection of letters written by her, and a poetical effusion.
Anne of Bretagne continued.
Her piety was fervent and sincere, tliough rather superstitious ; but she
was proud, her determination sometimes amounted to obstinacy, and, when
she thought herself justly offended, she knew not how to forgive. She
died January 9, 1514, and Louis mourned her loss with the most sincere
sorrow.
228
CASTLE LIFE,
ReproducBd from a painting by Joseph CbIbs-
tin BlaiiG Bxhibitsd in the Paris Salon, IBGS.
Blanc was a pupil of Bin and Cabanel, and wan
the prize at Rame in 1BFj7. His best piclures are
"The First Sin." " Hrigand's Wile/' and "Judith
and HaloiErnes."
^^f^/V"^^
C/3
W
o
<
-J
Q
Q
H
<
INFLUENCE OF
IVIEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
'•>e;^/-<-KrBc.-
^^nfHE twelfth century was a turbulent period of transition, both in
® I fe France and in England, from an old state of society to a new one.
It witnessed in both countries the great struggle between kingly
government and feudal power, and, at the end of it, the advantage re-
mained with the crown, though the victory was but imperfect.
The position of woman, it is true, had been, in some degree, raised at
the beginning of this period, especially among the aristocracy. Kings of
the Norman line granted the hereditary right of succession to
*|**^ such titles of nobility as earls, barons, etc., without excep-
tion of sex ; so that on the failure of male heirs, the title
should devolve and be confirmed to the women, and they could convey it
"}' marriage into other families. Thus women became nobles in their own
"R"t On the other hand, the authority of the father over his daughters,
»n regard to giving in marriage, had been transferred to tlie feudal lord, or
^t 'east was placed under his control ; and his right to the disposal of wards
^^more strictly enforced than ever, and was made a means of profit and
extortion. One of the old writers complains that " wards were bought
i*ndsold as commonly as were beasts." In the charter of Henry I., pre-
^Ted to the laws of that monarch, and written in the first year of his reign,
Wonuia** ^' ^' ^^^^ ^^ iioi, he promises to act in regard to his
MarttAl authority over the barons in this regard, with the upmost dis-
*" interesledness. *' And if," he says, *'any one of my barons
or men wish to give in marriage his (laughter, or sister, or j^randdaiighter,
or kinswoman, let him talk to me about it. But I will neither take any-
thing from him for this license, nor will I forbid him to give her, unless he
should intend to unite her with my enemy. And if my baron or other man
being dead, his daughter remains his heir, I will give her w ith her lands by
the advice of my barons. And if, the husband being dead, his wife sur-
vive, and be without children, she shall have her dower and marriage, and
231
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
I will not give her to a husband, except according to her will. But if
the wife survive with children, she shall have her dower and marriage, as
long as she shall keep her body lawfully ; and either the wife or some other
near of kin shall be the guardian of the land and children. And I order
that my barons shall forbear similarly towards the sons or daughters or
wives of their men." Such was woman's marital position under feudalism ;
forbearance was proclaimed nominally, but was far from bein<y the practice,
if various writers of this period are to be accredited.
One of the most singular characteristics of this period is the curious
mixture of religion and love. The knight wrote poems in honor of the
Virgin Mary, which cannot be easily distinguished from those
and addressed to the lady of his affection. The love of God and
i^ove of lYiQ ladies was the prime motive of every true knight in his
course of chivalry. To this he publicly and solemnly devoted himself.
La Dame des Belles Cousines, a shining light in the days of chivalry, held
that the love of God should not go on without the love of the ladies, and
that a " lover who comprehended how to serve a lady loyally was saved,''
St. Palaye does not hesitate to accept this as a serious article of the faith of
a knight. Speaking of the education of gentle youth he says, '* The first
lessons given to them had reference principally to the love of God and of
the ladies — that is to say, to religion and to gallantry.
** If one can credit the chronicle of Jean de Saintre, it was generally the
ladies who undertook the duty of teaching them at one and the same time
f/iet'r catechism and the art of love. But in like manner, as the religion
which was taught was accompanied by puerilities and superstition, so the
love of the ladies, which was prescribed to them, was full of refinement and
fanaticism."
The poet Chaucer observes as follows: "Women are the cause of all
knighthood, the increase of worship, and of all worthiness, courteous, glad
and merry, and true in every wise." Gassier in his ** History of the Chiv-
alry of France," speaking of the romancers or troubadours, has the
following : —
**Many knights are numbered among these poets. To consecrate his
heart and his homage to a mistress, to live for her exclusively ; for her to
232
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
aspire to all the glory of arms and of the virtues, to admire her perfec-
tions and assure to them public admiration, to aspire to the title of her
ff^^, servant and her slave, and to think himself blessed if, in
btdoars recompense of so great a love, and of so great efforts, she
deign to accept them ; in a word, to serve his lady as a kind
of divinity whose favors cannot but be the prize of the noblest sentiments,
a divinity who cannot be loved without respect, and who cannot be re-
spected without love — this was one of the principal duties of every knight,
or of whosoever desired to become one. The imagination sought to exalt
Itself with such a scheme of love ; and, by forming heroes, it gave reality to
blithe flights of the poet's imagination of that time.
" The fair whose charms and whose merits the knights-troubadour cele-
*^ted, those earthly goddesses of chivalry, welcomed them with a win-
^^g generosity, and often repaid their compliments with tender favors.
* It is easy to understand that, love and war being the spring of all
^*'" actions, some celebrated the deeds of arms which had rendered so
^*^J' orave knights illustrious, while others sang of the beauty, the graces,
^"^ charms of their ladies, and of the tender sentiments with which
^ *3*es inspired them. ' '
y tl-|e customs of Burgundy, a young maid could save the life of a
^* if she met him by accident, for the first time, going to execution,
^^d him in marriage. "Is it not true," asks Marchangy, " that the
^*^ who can interest a simple and virtuous maid, so as to be chosen for
^^^d, is not so guilty as he may appear, and that extenuating circum-
i^tance^ ^peak secretly in his favor? "
^^ not necessary to adduce further [)roof of the eminence to which,
"^*^V, woman was exalted through the spirit of chivalry. Her empire
_,--. was notorious and unchalleni^ed. All writers of those times
Cli%^^j c<?lebrate it, and in recent times it has been attested by the
charming pen of Scott and by the sneer of Gibbon. The
•hct)^' of the worship is beyond dispute ; but it may be interesting to
e?t^^Uie how the practice of chivalry accorded with its profession, and
Vk'bcther the power and position of the sex were substantially as dazzling as
speculation represented them. Upon reflection we shall probably all admit
233
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
that they were so. For though the phase of lady worship most familiar to
us is seen in the practice of the knights- errant, to whose vagaries a certain
amount of ridicule attaches, there is ample evidence of a real, practical,
established female ascendency. Independently of the effects of real or fan-
cied passion, or generosity, or condescension, the sex, as such, undoubtedly
experienced and exercised the benefits and the powers which the knight's
profession assigned to it.
Dunham, in his History of the Middle Ages, says: —
'*That woman should be regarded with new respect, that love and
poetry should thrive together and become the greatest charm of life, was to
be expected. In fact, from this period the sex assumed an empire which
had never before existed — an empire which religion could not reach —
over the minds of the fiercest nobles. It was not uncommon for a knight to
expiate even a venial fault by years of penance at the mandate of some
proud beauty."
But though possessed of such great and arbitrary powers, woman was
not a wholly irresponsible despot. She had her duties as well as her privi-
xiie ^^R^S' ^"^^ notwithstanding that here and there a saucy sister
Petninine strained her power to the utmost while taking little thought
spiiere ^^ ^^^^ ^^^,^ obligations, yet with the sex generally it was not
so ; indeed it could not have been so without breaking down the system,
which rested as much upon the fitness of women to be loved and served as
on the merit of men in loving and serving them. To justify this extreme
idolatry, it was necessary that the idol should be worthy of such worship ;
and a very high standard indeed was set up. The dame and the demoiselle
were eminent for courtesy, affability, and grace ; while at the same time
they cultivated all useful arts which were proper to their sphere. They
were emphatically ftviiymie. Fast and majinish women were not, as we
shall see, wholly unknown, but they were nonconformists, dissentients from
the pure faith of chivalry, — women who did not perceive their true mis-
sion nor the real source of their strength. That source was, as has been
said above, undoubtedly their weakness, and the absence of all pretension
on their part. Anything like self-assertion or competition would, in those
blustering ages when their influence began to bud, have been fatal to the
234
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
tender plant Woman became the arbitress of men's deeds, because she
refrained from meddling in the affairs of men ; she ruled because she did
not rival. St. Palaye, who has helped us before, we again cite in testimony
of her training and office : —
"Courts and castles were excellent schools of courtesy, of politeness,
and of the other virtues, not only for pages and esquires, but even for
young ladies. The lattervvere there instructed betimes in the
.^ most essential duties which they would have to fulfill. There
were cultivated, there were perfected, those simple graces
and those tender feelings for which nature seems to have formed them.
The)' prepossessed by civility the knights who arrived at tlieir castles.
According to our romances, they disarmed them on their return journeys
and expeditions of war, gave them changes of apparel, and waited on
them at table. The examples of this are too frequently and too uniformly
repeated to allow of our questioning the reality of this custom. We see
therein nothing but what is conformable to the spirit and the sentiments at
the time almost universally diffused among ladies ; and one cannot refuse
toreco^ize the marks of usefulness which were in everything the stamp of
our chiN-alr)'.
"These damsels, destined to have for husbands those same knights who
\Tsited at the houses where they were brought up, could not fail to attach
them to themselves by the attentions, the considerations, and the services
*hich they lavished upon them. How admirahk' the union which ought to
pniceed from alliances established on foundations like this I The young
i(irls learned to render one day to their husbands all the ser\ ices which a
*amor, distinguished by his valor, can expect from a tenck-r and generous
woman : and they prepared to be to them the most touching recompense
and the sweetest solace of their labors.
Chivalry passed its meridian and began to decline when it became a
ndiculous mania for renown. Knighthood was no longer the rt.\v;ird of
high-minded virtue, but was bestowed on any man who had
^ wealth or power to obtain it for his own seltlsh purposes.
The profligacy of the troubadours was open and flagrant ;
the crusaders, who made a pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre in expiation of
235
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
their sins, fearfully added to the list on their way ; poor knights, who had
no money to i)ay iheir retainers, made no scruple of obtaining it by rob-
bery and violence, and wandered about in quest of adventures, letting out
their swords to richer brethren ; women departed from the modesty which
had procured them homage, and bestowed their smiles so indiscriminately
that they lost their value. Vet, as the affectation of anything is always
more excessive than the reality, the exploits of the knights during the
rapid decline of chivalry were more outrageously fantastical than they had
ever lx?en. It was common for a cavalier to post himself in some very
public place, and fight every gentleman that passed, unless he instantly
acknowledged that the lady of his affections was the handsomest and most
virtuous lady in the world ; and if, as often happened, he was met by one
as mad as himself, who insisted upon maintaining the superior charms of
his dulcinea, a deadly combat ensued.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, a society of ladies and
gentlemen was fornu-d at Poictou, called the Penitents of Love. In order
to show that love could effect \\\v strongest metamorphosis, they covered
themselves with furred mantles and sat before large fires in the heat of
summer, while in winter they wore the slightest j)ossible covering. Thus
chivalry became an absurd and disgusting mockery, and was finally
laughed out of the world by the witty Cervantes.
But though thf form became grotesque, and died in a state of frenzy,
the important end achieved by the spirit of true chivalry ought not to be
XeacliliiirM f**^^*^^^^*"- '^ stood in the place of laws, when laws could
of xnae not have bevn enforced, and it raised woman to a moral rank
ciiiva ry j^^ society unknown to the most rrfmed nations of anti(|uity
— a rank she can never entirely lose, and from which her comparative free-
dom is derived. It taught monarchs to lay the foundation of a beautiful
social system by introducing the wives and daughters of the nobles at
court, where none but men had previously been seen. "A court without
Lidies," said Francis I., "is a year without a spring, or a spring without
roses.
Beyond the walls of the castle, and having no relationship of their own
with feudalism, to which the foregoing discussion has almost exclusive
23G
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
^^crencc, lay two other great classes of the population. First, there were
"^^ mhabitants of the towns, who embodied, perhaps, to a greater degree
^W any of the others, the spirit of social and political freedom and prog-
^^ The other was to a great extent a servile class, attached to the
^und, or personally to the lord of the domain, reduced to servility
throi^h conquest, and largely intermixed in the course of time with slaves
/'^uced to that condition by different means. Among the masses, in
"^A these classes, there was far less of social refinement than among tHe
^^da\ or gen//e class.
F'or our knowledge of the women among the masses at that time we
"'"^t look to the fabliaux and popular tales, to the farces, and to the
'^^ong popular literature generally, and there we shall find it pic-
tiie tured pretty fully, and it must be confessed in not very
***** amiable colors.
"The generality of the buri^her women are represented as ill-educated,
^^^^*^ in language and manners, and violent in temper. They tyrannize
®^*^r their husbands, and beat them, and are often beaten in their turn.
irit^ylove gadding alx)ut. This is perhaps easily understood, when we
^^nsider that town life, as far as the male sex was concerned, was very
"^^»ch out-of-doors, and that the women were left to themselves, and
^HQrefore sought society among themselves, and, as they had not this at
'^oiTie, they sought some common place of meeting. This place was the
^^vern, which, in the medieval town, was the great place of resort for both
^-xes.
The love of women for the tavern is continually alluded to by the early
Popular writers. The farces of these writers were first made to enliven the
dull mysteries, or nligious plays, with which the medieval
^ clergy sought to edifv their congregations on certain occa-
sions. When the hearers appeared to he too much wearied
*Uh the religious piece, or when it was judged probable that they might
"^« One of these farces was introduced between the scenes, the subject
usually taken from vulgar life.
In the middle of the religious play of the Life of St, Fiarn\ a farce is
Jntrodured, the subject of which is a scene of poj)ular lift-, the charac trrs
5>37
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
being men of the country instead of the town, whose manners appear not
to have differed. A scuffle has taken place between a yeoman, a ser-
geant (or bailiff), and a brigand, in which the sergeant* s arm
" *^* is broken. The wives of the bailiff and yeoman meet in anoth-
Plctnre ^
er scene, and the latter tells the former of her husband's mis-
hap, at which she expresses her joy, inasmuch as he had beaten her
severely the night before, and she hopes he may be disabled from doing it
again. The yeoman's wife then proposes to adjourn to a tavern : —
•' Sister, I know a tavern.
Where there is a wine so dainty,
That to all bodies it sets the heart laughing
Who drinks it."
Accordingly they proceed to the tavern, and address themselves to the
hostess : —
** Hostess, God's blessing to you,
Put us in a private room,
And then bring us to drink."
So the women are shown into a private apartment, and are served with
wine ; and here they enter into a rather free conversation on the characters
of their husbands, not much to the advantage of the latter. Says the wife
of the bailiff : —
•* You shall drink first of all,
Gossip, you are the elder.
Moreover you have brought
The news first
Of my husband, how he is
In evil plight ; I am in great joy, —
I wish he had his head
Entirely broken."
However, it turns out that the bailiff's hurt was not so great as had been
supposed ; and the drinking room was not so secret ; for the women are
alarmed soon after by seeing their husbands approach the tavern. They
arrive, find their wives and beat them, and, as their wives are very ready at
defending themselves, the farce ends in a general scuffle. Such was
burgher life in one of its lower phases.
There was another establishment peculiar to the medieval towns which
238
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
formed ^. favorite resort to the townswomen, called in French cstuves or
public baths. The women of the medieval towns appear to
31^^^^ have spent much of their time in these cstuves. They met
there as at a party of amusement, and often clubbed together
provisions to make a banquet, much in the manner of fashionable picnics in
the days of George III. of England. The earlier French popular literature
imrodiices us to the scenes which occurred on these occasions, but they are
too coarse and disreputable to be described in modern print. In the man-
ner in which they were conducted, these establishments offered so many
lacUilies to discreditable intrigues that they became known as houses of ill-
lame. They continued to exist in France until rather a late period ; in
London they were suppressed by Henry VIII.
* "e tone of society in the towns, as revealed by these scenes in the
*'*''^» Ji-as extremely gross, and the language the women use, and the
^^^^^ subjects of which they talk, would not bear repetition at the
lAt^ [)resent day. This was, no doubt, less the case with the
higher classes, though the women of these classes, even, are
•fess/^ warned against the use of obscene words and expressions, as
^" ^liey were not uncommon. Morality, too, appears to.have been at
■'^ ^^^^3, and the burgher women are represented as engaged continually
in low ^x^ trignc's, and as too often faithless to tht-ir husbamls.
\ar \, ^y^ circumstances conduced to this state of things. The women of
the t«»^ iVs, and of the common class in the country, were left much to them-
^^.^.^ selves, and were perhaps on that account more rxposed to
corruption. But the literature of the feudal agt? destroys any
(JoO^^ ^hich might remain on our minds that the j)ri(sthoo(l, (k*j)ri\r(i of
-Y^c V^^viJejri- of marriage, were the grrat corruj)ti'rs of fcinak* morality.
-^YvJ^ ^as chiefly the ca.se outside the walls of the feudal castles. The clergy
^ilh»n — the chaplains of the feudal chieftains — were too widely sej)arate(i
•^ rocial level from the ladies of the household, and under too close ob-
y.nati<m of the lord and his knights and escjuires, to he vtry dangerous.
/f tt<is the parish priesthood especially, who mixed with their parishioners
^,n a ^*x»ting of equality, and, in fact, belonj^ed. generally, by l)Ioo(i to the
^mc class, who, armed with the dem(»ralizing system of auricular confes-
231)
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
sion, were the great underminers of the social morals of the Middle
Ages.
In the popular stories of the time, every woman almost had a priest, or
a '' clerk," or a monk, for her lover, and not a few of the stories turn upon
the alliance or rivalry of clergy and laity in the same pursuit. Moreover, a
very considerable portion of the clergy, down to a very late period, so far
set the regulations of the Church at defiance, that they lived with concu-
bines, who were acknowledged by the parishioners as their wives, and were
commonly spoken of as the *' priestesses," who were considered as holding
rather a high position in the popular society, and whose children were
proud of their descent. The priests' wives, or priestesses, formed quite 2k
class in medieval society, although they were not acknowledged by the
Church.
Another point to be emphasized as characteristic of the Middle Ages is
the spirit of superstitious devotion so generally manifested. No guest was
saper- so welcome in bower and hall as the pilgrim returned from the
•tltloas Holy Land, with many a tale to tell of victories gained by
knights of the holy cross over the worthless infidel. The
troubadours^ after a youth spent in love and minstrelsy, almost invariably
retired to the silence of the cloister. Noble and beautiful women, upon the
slightest disgust with life, or remorse of conscience, took the vow that sep-
arated them fore\'er from the world, and pledged them to perpetual chastity
and poverty. When this vow was taken, all jewels and rich garments were
laid aside, and the head shorn of its beautiful ornament of hair.
The building in which they secluded themselves was guarded by massive
walls, and iron-grated windows. The rich and the noble seldom died with-
out leavine something to endow a convent. At last, they
Conirents . .
became powerful instruments of oppression ; for, if a noble-
man had numerous daughters, and wished, in the pride of his heart, to cen-
ter his wealth on one only, he could compel all the others to take the veil ;
if they were not sufificiently beautiful to aid his ambitious views, or dared to
form an attachment contrary to his wishes, the same fate awaited them.
If a nun violated her vow of chastity, she suffered a penalty as severe
as that imposed on the vestal virgins ; being placed in an opening of the
240
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
walb, which was aften^ard bricked up and thus left to perish slowly with
hunger.
But the influence of convents was far from being wholly evil. Their
gates were ever open to the sick, the wounded, and the destitute ; in
the most turbulent times, the sweet charities of life there found a kindly
nurser)-, and many a young mind was trained to virtue and learning, under
the fostering care of some worthy abbess.
Aschi\'alr\' and the military spirit declined, men began to take pride in
literature ; and women, of course, assumed a corresponding:
character. The merits of Arist()tle and Plato divided the
attention of the learned. The universities declared in favor of Aristotle ;
■'"^ poets, lovers, and women were enamored of the ethereal Plato. Wo-
men preached in public, supported controversies, published and defended
theses, filled the chairs of philosophy and law, harangued the popes in Lat-
in. «Tote Greek, and read Hebrew. Nuns wrote poetry, women of rank be-
<^*roc divines, and young girls publicly exhorted Christian princes to take
upvmsforthe recovery' of the holy sepulcher.
" niay Ih? necessary' to speak briefly concerning the matter of dress at
™ remote periods under consideration. I^xtravagancc* in the display of
^^ jewelry and of rich materials in the dress had increased
greatly toward the end of the twelfth ( entury, and were still
on the increase.
Among the new sul)stances. derived like so many others from the ICast,
Has one a»mm<»n enough now. but then greatly prized — cotton, which ;ip-
ftears to have l>een introduced into Pranct- in the twelfth century. It
;ippears to ha\ e iK^en in general use throughout lunopc- in the thirteenth
a-niury. The use of silk among the higher classes was very considerable,
dJid it was mixed perhaps with other substances, and received various
cJ'vrs. s'^ as to form a variety of silken stutfs known inuKr (hftcrcnt nanus.
.Siji^ uas a cloth of very fine texture made of wool. It was often employed
:o evade the ecclesiastical rule which enjoined, by way of penance, the
* tearing (»f a woolen garment, intended, of course. 1«) be rough, next to
he >kin. Cavulot, which came from the Past, is said to have been made
A the hair of camels.
1^41
INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL INSTITUTIONS.
In the latter part of the twelfth century, and in the thirteenth, embroid-
ery of various kinds was employed in these stuffs, and in dresses made
from them, to a very extravagant degree. It was not unusual to have the
crests and armorial bearings of the family embroidered upon the outer
dress ; and it was often covered with large figures, not only of plants and
flowers, but of animals also. Widows were closely muffled, and wore caps
and veils very much like nuns.
A taste for rich and elegant dress displayed itself first in Italy and
'France, and thence spread into the more northern nations. Petrarch's
National Laura is described as wearing gloves brocaded with gold ,
Pecaifarltfes and dressed magnificently in silk, though a pound of silk ai
n Dress ^j^^^ period was valued at above twenty dollars, in our money.
Spanish ladies wore necklaces of steel, to which thin iron rods were fas-
tened, curving upward to expand the veil when thrown over the head.
All nations prided themselves on long and beautiful hair. Among the
Saxons and Danes, married women only covered it with a headdress ; girls
wore their tresses loose and flowing. A faithless wife had her head shaven,
and the Church sometimes ordered it as a penance for other sins. The
Spanish and Italian ladies retained the Roman predilection for golden hair.
In order to obtain the desired hue, they made use of sulphur and aquafortis,
and exposed their heads to the sun during the hottest hours of the day.
The writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries make much more
frequent mention of the variations of the fashions than those of more
remote periods. The causes of this may easily be dis-
Paslifons
covered, both in the principal events of the last centuries of
the Middle Ages, and in the reciprocal relations of the nations of Europe.
The long wars between the English and French, and the military expedi-
tions of the Germans, French, and Spaniards to Italy, caused such an in-
termixture of nations as had not taken place since the time of the crusades.
When the soldiers who had been in foreign service for many years returned
to their native land, they very often retained the dresses and decorations
which announced their extraordinary achievements and adventures ; and
these foreign costumes and ornaments found admirers and imitators among
their countrymen and countrywomen.
242
^f/
(^
mU(ci
BOOK FIVE
7'HE DAWN OF WOMAN'S POWER
PERIOD OF INTELLECTUAL AWAKENING
A. D. 1500 TO A. D. 1800
<!!/
}S>
<f
CATHARINE OF ARAGON.
A. D. 1480-1536.
FIRST WIFE OF HENRY Vlll. OF ENGLAND.
F^lATHARINE of Aragon, fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella,
^^^ king and queen of Castile and Aragon, was born December 15,
1485. Married in 1501, when scarcely sixteen, to Arthur, Prince
^t Wales, son of Henry VII., she was left a widow April 2, 1502, and on
^«e 25di of June was betrothed to her brother-in-law, Henry, then only
^M'cn years old. The pope's dispensation enabling such near relatives to
Quarry was obtained in 1504, and the marriage took place in June, 1509,
5cven weeks after Henry's accession to the crown as Henry VIII.
The queen,by her manners, good sense, and superior endowments, con-
trived to retain the affection of this fickle and capricious monarch for nearly
twaty years. She was devoted to literature and was the patroness of liter-
arjrmciL She bore several children, but all of them, excei)ting a daughter,
afteiwanitt Queen Mary, died in their infancy. Scruples, real or pretended,
3tleiq;th arose in the mind of Henry concerning the legality of their union,
udthey were powerfully enforced by his passion for Anne Boleyn.
In 1527, he resolved to obtain a divorce from Catharine on the grounds
of the nullity of their marriage, as contrary to the Divine laws. Pope
QcmeDt VII. seemed at first disposed to listen to his application, but over-
Ured by Charles V., emperor of Germany and nephew to Catharine, he
cvaed die negotiations to be so protracted that Henry became very impa-
tient Catharine conducted herself with gentleness, yet firmness, in this
^lynv emergenc>-.
Beil^ cited before the papal legates, Wolsry and Campeggio, who had
opened their court at London, in May, 1529, to try the validity of the
l^ioS^s marriage, she arose and, knc-eling Ix-fore her hnsl)ancl, reminded hin.,
* a pathetic yet resolute speech of Ikt lonely and unprotected state,
'wlof her constant devotion to him, on proof of which she appealed to his
Own heart ; then, protesting against the proceedings of the court, she rose
^'rf withdrew, nor could she ever be induced to appear again.
Hcnrj', soon after, threw oil liis submission to the court of Rome, de-
245
IVIAROARET OF ANOOUL^IVIB.
A. D. 1499-1549.
QUEEN OF NAVARRE.
MARGARET was born in AngouKime, April ii, 1492, and died at
the chateau Odos, in Bigorre, Deceml)cr 21, 1549. She was the
daughter and eldest child of Charles of Orleans, Count of Angoii-
lenie, and of Louise of Savoy. Her father died when she was in her
twelfth year, hut she was well educated by her mother, and at the court of
Louis XI L
She was married in 1509 to Charles, Duke of Alen9on, a prince of
the blood royal, but who has suffered in history, as he did at the time,
by the splendor of the alliance made for him. The five years that im-
mediately followed this marriage were passed in the duchy of Alenyon ;
but when Margaret's brother became king of France, as Francis L, she not
only became attached to his court, but had a large part in the government.
She w«'is superior to her brother in ability, and her learning and wit
made her the fit companion of the statesmen of those times. She spoke
several languages fluently and correctly.
After the defeat and capture of her brother at Pavia, in February, 1525,
Margaret aided her mother to carry on the government for some months ;
but in August she went to Madrid, where Francis was then a prisoner to
Charles V. Her visit was reputed to have saved his life ; and her warm
reproaches to the emperor, because of his uncliivalrous treatment of
Francis, had a powerful eflect even on his cold nature. The Duke oi
Alen^on, her husband, died April 11, 1525. She afterwards became the
wife of Henri d' Albert, Count of Beam, and titular king of Navarre.
Cutlx<irino of Arfujroii continued.
clared himself luad c>f the Church of luigland, had his marriage formally
annulled by Archbishop Cranmer, and in 1532 married .Xnne Boleyn.
Catharine took up her abode at Amplhill in Bedfordshire, and after-
wards at Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire. .She employed herself
chiefly in religious duties, bearing her lot with resignation. She died in
January, 1536.
ANNE BOIvEYN.
A. D. 1507-153G.
SECOND WIFE OF HENRY VIII. OF ENGLAND.
aNXE BOLEYN, second wife of Henry VIII., was born in 1.507, and
was the daughter of Sir Thomas Holeyn, by Elizabeth Howard,
(laughter of the Duke of Norfolk. She spent some three years at
the court of France, and soon after her return to England was wooed by
Lord Hcnr)' Percy, and by king Henry himself, who in 1522 began to shower
•eaith and honors on her father, and who ere this had dishonored her sister
Man*. \ot till the king's divorce from Catharine of Aragon was set afoot,
dots Anne seem to have favored his addresses ; but long before Cranmer
pn»nounce(i the divorce, she was Henry's mistress. They were secretly
numd in Januar\', 1533, and Anne was crowned the following June. Her
^laujjhter, the famous Elizabeth, was born on September 7 of the same year.
Anne continued to be much loved by the king until 1536, when the dis-
appointment caused by the birth of a still-born son alienated his affections.
^ next May day, the king rode off abruptly from a tournament held at
Greenwich, leaving the queen behind, and on the morrow she was arrested
andhrouj^ht to the tower. The story runs that his jealousy was kindled by
"^r dropping a handkerchief to one of her lovers in the lists below ; any-
'"•ow, a s|>ecial commission had been secretly engaged in examining into
charges of Anne's adultery with her own brother, Lcird Ro( hford, and
♦jtheni, including Mark Smeaton, a musician. Only Smeaton made any
confession; but they were all convicted oi high treason and nut death,
^'neaton was hanged, and two days later on Tower (Jreen, Anne submitted
"^-T slim neck to the headsman's axe. Henry, the next day, married Jane
^ymour.
" ^ as through the influence of Anne Boleyn that the translation of the
Vnpturt-s was sanctioned by Henry \'III. Her own private coj)y of
iyndale's translation is still in existence. She was a woman of highly
•-uuivaied mind, and there are still extant soiiie verses comj)ose(l by her,
shortly before her execution, which are touching in the extreme by reason
^'^ tJic^ef and desolation they express.
247
ANNE ASKBW.
A. I>. 1521-1546.
MARTYR TO RELIGIOUS FANATICISM.
FNNE ASKEW, daughter of Sir William Askew, oi Kelsay, in Lin-
colnshire, England, was born in 152 1. She received a very liberal
education, and early manifested a predilection for theological
studies. She had read and studied the Scriptures quite extensively and
espoused with great earnestness the opinions of the Reformation.
Her eldest sister, who was engaged to Mr. Kyme of Lincolnshire, died
before the nuptials were completed. Sir W^illiam Askew, unwilling to lose
a connection which promised pecuniary advantages, compelled his second
daughter, Anne, to fulfill the engagement entered into by her sister. But
however reluctantly she gave her hand to Mr. Kyme, to whom she bore
two children, she rigidly fulfilled the duties of a wife and mother.
Her husband was a strong Catholic, and turned her out of doors. She
went to London to sue for a separation, and attracted the sympathy of
the queen, Catharine Parr, and many of the court ladies.
At first a Roman Catholic, she had gradually become convinced of the
falsity of transubstantiation. On coming to London she was obliged to
suflfer numerous indignities lK)th at the hands of the Church and the civil
authorities.
Her denial of the corporeal presence of Christ's body in the eucharist
caused her arrest and committal to prison. When examined before the
lord chancellor Wriothesley, bishop of London, and the lord-mayor of that
city, she was asked, whether the priests cannot make the body of Christ?
She answered, " I have read that (lod made man, but that man can make
(iod I have never yet read."
Yet Hiirnet says, that after much pains she signed a recantation acknowl-
edging that the natural body of Christ was present in the sacrament after
the consecration, wlu-ther the ofiiciating priest W(.*re a man <»f holy or evil
life. Her recantation did not save her. She was recommitted to Newgate,
anil aski'd to disclose who were her correspondents at court. She refused
to reply, and was racked in the presence of the lord chancellor, but would
disclose nothing.
248
NIARGARET ROPKR.
d. A. I). 1544.
LEARNED DAUGHTER OF SIR THOMAS MORE:
- ♦-.'-^^
MARGARET ROPER, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, was a
woman of fine mind and charming disposition, the dehght and
comfort of her celebrated father. The greatest care was taken in
^w education ; and she became learned in Greek, Latin, many of the sci-
ences, and music.
Erasmus wrote a letter to her, as a woman famous not only for virtue
^d piety but for solid learning. Cardinal Pole was so delighted with the
elegance of her Latin style, that he could not believe it was the production
of a woman.
She married William Roper, Esq., of Well-hall in the Parish of Eltham,
in Kent ; she died in 1544, and was buried at St. Dunstan's church, in
Canterbury, with her father's head in her arms ; for she had procured it
^er it had remained fourteen days on London bridge, and had preserved
11 in a leaden box, till there was an opportunity of conveying it to Can-
terbury, to the burial place of the Ropers. She had five children, one of
*'nom, Mary, was nearly as famous as herself.
Mrs. Roper wrote, in reply to Quintilian, an oration in defense of the
•^cn man, whom he accuses of having, by venomous flowers in his garden,
P<>isoned the poor man's bees. This performance is said to have rivaled
V"'niilian's in eloquence.
^ne also wrote two declamations, and translated them into Latin, and
^niposed a treatise Of the Four Last Vlihiq^s, in which she showed so
°^"^h strong reasoning and justness of thought, as obliged Sir Thomas to
confess its superiority to a discourse in which he was himself employed on
^"^ same subject. The ecclesiastical history of Lusebius was translated by
tnis scholarly woman from the Greek into Latin.
'^Hw A«Vco%v continued.
Her fortitude probably saved the life of the (jueen. As she was not able
^^ stand after the torture, she was carried in a chair to the stake at Smith-
"^d, July 16, 1546, and suffered along with four others. She underwent
^nis last trial with the same courage as the former.
249
MARY I.
A. I>. lftlG-15A8.
THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, KNOWN AS ''BLOODY MARY."
:-*•:—-
/ I \HIS queen, upon whom has l)ccn indelibly fixed the epithet of
-I- ** Bloody Mary," was born at Oremwich Palace, February i8,
15 16, a daughter of Henry VIII. by his first wife, Catharine of
Aragon. She was carefully educated in Sj^ain, was an ardent Catholic and
became a proficient scholar in Latin, so that Erasmus commends Ikt letters
in that language.
Edward VL, her brother, dying 15S3. ^^^^ ^^'*^*^ proclaimed queen in July
of the same year, and crowned in October. I'pon her accession, she
declared that she would not persecute her Protestant subjects : but, in the
following month, she restricted preaching, and in less than three months
the Protestant bishops were excluded from the House of Lords, and all the
statutes of Edward \'I. respecting the Protestant religion were repealed.
In July, 1554, she was married to Philip 11. of .Spain, who was t-leven
years younger than herself, and by temper little disposed to act tlu* h^ver.
His ruling i)assion was ambition, which this fond consort was resoKcd to
gratify. In this point, however, she was less successful than in her favorite
wish of reconciling the kingdom to the pope, which was effected in form,
by the legate, Cardinal Pole.
The sanguinary laws against heretics were renewed, and put in execu-
tion. The shocking scenes which followed, the pages of history tell in
tears. In three or four years, two hundred an<l seventy-seven persons
were conunitted to the fiames. On T'ebruary 4, 1555, John Rogers was
burned at the stake ; Cranmer, Latim<r, and Ridley shared the same
fate. The ruin of England seemed impending, when in the summer c^f
1558 the (pieen was attacked by an intermittent fever, of \\lii<h she died
at .St. James Palace, November 17.
To her, no doubt, the propagators of heresy were the enemies of man-
kind, and she ha<l little cause to lovt? them. \\{ j)erha|)s she hardly real-
ized the full horror of what was done under her sanction. Tennyson calls
her "unhappiest of cjueens, and wives, and women."
250
LADY JANE QRKY.
A. D. 1537-1554.
THE "NINE DAYS QUEEN OF ENGLAND."
H-H06 — K
T (^ADY JANE GREY was born at Brod^atc, Leicestershire, England,
I \ in October, 1537. She was the eldest daughter of Henry Grey,
Marquis of Dorset, who in 1551 became Duke of Suffolk, and of
Lady Frances Brandon.
Udy Jane was brought up rigorously by her parents, every petty fault
punished with "pinches, nips, and bobs" ; but Aylmer, her tutor, after-
wards bishop of London, endeared himself to her by his gentleness, and
under him she made great progress, especially in languages — Latin, Greek,
French, Italian, and Hebrew.
Roger Ascham tells how in December, 1550, he found her reading Plato's
Pkirdoin the original, while the rest of the family were hunting. She also
s^ and played well, and was versed in other feminine accomplishments.
^" ^S53, after the fall of the Duke of Somerset, the Duke of North-
wraberland, foreseeing the speedy death of the boy-king Edward VI., de-
termined to change the succession and secure it to his own family. Lady
Jiine. not sixteen years old, was therefore married, strongly against her
wish, to Lord Dudley, Xorlhuml)erlan(rs fourth son, on May 21, 1553 ;
ai^donJulvQ, three days after Edward's death, the council informed her
that ^he was named as his successor.
*-^n the 19th, the brief usurpation over, she found herself a prisoner in
the Tower and four months later, j)leading guilty of high treason, she was
^ntenatl to death. .She spurned the idea of forsaking Protestantism for
love of life, and bitterly condemned Northumberland's rrcantation. This,
t^^ther with her father's participation in Wyatt's rebellion, sealed her
d'M'Hi and she was beheaded on Tower I fill, IVbruary 12, 1554.
from the scaflold she made a hj)eech in which she said : " The fact, in-
'Jeed, against the (jueen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting to by
nie; but touching the procurement and tlesire thereof by m(* or on my be-
Wf, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency I die a
true Giristian woman. ' '
251
CATHARINE DE* MEDICI.
A. I>. 1519-1589.
FAMOUS QUEEN MOTHER OF KINGS.
^^ATHARINE DE'MEDICI, the wife of one king of France and the
\T^ mother of three, was the daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of
T Urbino, and was born at Florence in 15 19. In her fourteenth year
she was brought to France, and married to Henry, the second son of
Francis I. The marriage was a part of the poUtical schemes of her uncle.
Pope Clement VII., hut as he died soon after, she found herself friendless
and neglected at the French court.
It was not till the accession of her eldest son, Francis II., in 1559, that
she found some scope for her ambition. The Ciuises at this time were in
power, and Catharine entered into a secret alliance with the Huguenots to
oppose them. On the death of Francis II. in 156c), and accession of her
second son, Charles IX., the government fell entirrly into her hands.
She entered into a secret treaty with Spain for the- extirpation of heretics
and subsecjuently into a plot with the Guises, which resulted in the fearful
mass;icre of St. Bartholomew's day. This event brought the whole power
of the state into the hands of the (jueen mother, who boasted of the deed
to Roman Catholic governments, and excused it to IVoti-staiit (»nes.
Al)Out this time she succeeded, by gold and inlrij^ms, in getting her
third son, afterwards Henry III., clicted to tin- Polish thn»ne. Hut lur
arbitrary and tyrannical administration roused the opposition oi a Roman
Catholic party, at the head of which was her own fourth son, the Duke of
Alen^on. It was very generally Ix-lievird that she was privy to the machi-
nations that led to his death. Many vexations preyed on the proud heart
of the (jueen mother in her last days : and. amid>t the c<»ntu>ion and strife
of parties, she died at Hlois on January 5, 15S1;, iniheeded and unlamented.
Catharine de'Mediei may fairly be regarded as a representative woman
of an ::ge when the first princii)les of human coiiduel N\ere hopelessly con-
founded by religious strife and tlur inlrij^ues and curruptions of the courts.
Virtue had given place to luxiny. extravagance, cunning, sensuality, and
cruelty ; qualities which the prevailing ctMulilions tencied to develop.
252
eo
QUEEN ELIZABETH
SIGNING THE DEATH WARRANT DF
MARY QUEEN DF SCDTS.
.©♦o.
ReprDducBd Irnm thB painting af A. L. Mayer,
a Hungarian painter, and pupil of Piloty.
Mayer's works have recBived much praisB, as-
pB::ially his picturss, " Faust," and " Maria ThB-
resa Nursino tha Faor Woman's Child."
*-!^
gUEEN ELIZABETH SIGNING DEATH WARRANT
OK MAKV gi'EEN OF SCOTS.
QIJEKN ET^i;5ABETH.
A. 11. 1^33-U\OH.
LAST OF THE TUDOR LINE.
^2) LIZABKTH, qiiei.n of ICnt^laiul, and the last sovereign of the house of
^^r Tudor, was horn at (jRcnwich, Scplt-inbcr 7, 1533. She was a
daughter of Henry \ IH. and Anne Holeyn. Her chiUihood wiis
])assed in comparative retirement, and she was e(ineated hy persons who
favored the reformed reli^don. She learned the I-atin, dreek, French, and
Italian languages of the famons Ro^er Asi ham.
In 1554 Klizaheth was confined in the Tower l>y order of Oueen Mar\',
who believed her to he imj)lieate<l in Wyatt's rebellion, an<l rej^arded her
with jealousy Inrcause she was the favorite with the Protestant j»arty. She
narrowly escaped death, for some «>f the bishops and courtiers advised
Mary to order her execution. After she had passtd several months in the
Tower, she was removed to Woodstock and aj>j)eased Mary by professing
to be a Roman Catholic.
On the death <>f (Jueen Mary, on Nov. 17. I55«S. Flizalu-th ascen<ied
the throne, and tlu^ majority of th<* people rejoired at her a(•^•rs^ion. She
appointed William Cecil secretary t)f st.ite. and Nieln»las Bacon keeper
of the great seal. .She retained several Roman Catholic^ in her privy
council, but she refused to hear mass in tlu- royal chaj)el.
The Prott*stants wen- the maj<)rity in the Parlianunt which met in 1559,
abolished the mass, adopted the Thirty-Niiu- .\itieles as the nliii^ion of the
State, and recognized thr (juem as tlir luad <>! the Church. .Sht- <ieclint'd
an offer of marriage made to lur bv Philip nf .Spain. Her fonign policy
was pacific. She waged n«» war f«»r < ninpust, but to pn»m<»tr the .stability
of her throne she aided tlu- Protectant in>urgents in Sci aland. France, and
the Netherlands, with nn)niy and trtM»j>^.
In 1563, the l^uliament. an.\iMn> ih.ii ^h<* ^li«»nl<l ha\r An luir. entreated
her to marry, l)Ut .she rrtnrnrd an <\.»>i\«' an^wir. .ni<l v\onld neither accept
the hand of any of lu-r sin"t«»r^ n«»r (lcci<l« in t.t\««r of any » lainiant of the
throne. Among lur suitors urrc thr l*irn«h 1 )nk« •»[ An^«»n. tlh- .\rch-
dukc Charles of Austria, aimI Ri»1m rl Dudley, I'.arl «»i L« ice>trr. who was
v»55
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
for many years her chief favorite. William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, was her
prime minister and most trusted adviser during the greater part of her reign,
the prosperity of which was largely due to his prudence and influence.
Mary, Queen of Scots, fleeing from her rebellious subjects, took refuge
in England in 1568, and was detained as a prisoner by Elizabeth. The
latter regarded Mary as a dangerous rival, because the English Catholics
wished to raise her to the throne of England, and formed several plots and
conspiracies for that object. Mary was beheaded February 8, 1587.
Philip II. of Spain had long meditated a hostile enterprise against
Queen Elizabeth, who had offended him by aiding his revolted Dutch sub-
jects and by persecuting the English Catholics. For the invasion of England
he fitted out the Invincible Armada, which consisted of about 130 vessels
with over 19,000 soldiers, and sailed in May, 1588. A violent storm dis-
persed the Spanish ships, many of which were wrecked, and the rest were
encountered by the English fleet, mostly consisting of small but excellently
equipped veSvSels, under Admiral Howard, and thoroughly beaten, August
8, 1588.
The disastrous failure of this expedition did not terminate hostilities l>e-
tween England and Spain. An English fleet look Cadiz in 1596.
After the Earl of Leicester died, 15SS, the Earl of Essex was the queen's
favorite courtier. The I*uritans were severely persecuted in the latter part
of her reign. She died March 24, 1603. and was succeeded by James \'I.
of Scotland, who became Janice I. of England.
Her reign was one of the most j)rosperous and glorious in English his-
tory. The Elizabethan age was almost unequaled in literature, and was
illustrated by the genius of Shakespeare, Sj>enser, Bacon, Sidney, and Ra-
leigh.
The darkest slain on the memory of I^lizabelh is her trealment of Mary.
Queen of Scots. Her executi<^n. tliouj^h clamored for by the ICnglish
nation, was an act of cruelly peculiarly revolting on the j>art of a female
sovereign and kinswoman. And IClizabelh's affected rehic tance to sign the
death warrant, coupled with the most fla^r.mt duplicity following closely
upon it — all of which was o\er-acted and disgusting — is almost as injurious
to the reputation of Elizabeth as the deed itself.
250
MARY, QUEEN OK SCOTS.
A. I>. 1548-1587.
BEHEADED BY QUEEN ELIZABETH.
^^ARY STUART, Queen of Scots, celebrated for her beauty, her
\T / wit, her learning, and her misfortunes, was born December 8,
1542. She was the daughter of James V. of Scotland by Marie
ol Lorraine, a French princess of the family of Guise. Her father died a
Iwdays after her birth, and on September 9, 1543, she was crowned queen
of Scotland, the Earl of Arran conducting the government.
In 1548 she was affianced to Francis, Dauphin of France, son of Henry
11. and Catharine de' Medici, and in the same year she was brought to
France to be educated at the French court. When she grew up she added
to a striking and fascinating personal beauty all the accomplishments and
cWms which a perfect education can give.
Her marriage with the dauphin was celebrated April 24, 1558, in the
Church of Notre Dame, and when Mary I. of England died in the same
year she had her arms quartered with those of England, and threatened to
rouse the Catholics against Elizabeth's title.
On July 10, 1559, Henry II. died, and was succeeded by Francis II.
^Jan- thus became Queen of France, but Francis died December 5, 1560 ;
she was childk*ss, and had little power at court, where the influence of
Catharine de' Medici was now paramount. In the same year her mother
^j«i. and she then returned to Scotland.
brought up a Roman Catholic and used to the gay life of the French
^^urt. she found the dominant Protestantism of Scotland and the austere
"^ners of her subjects almost intolerable. Nevertheless, the first period
'•I her reign was fairly successful ; and she strove to conciliate the Protes-
^"^. The latter, however, were s(K)n estranged l)y her unfortunate mar-
"^^ with her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a Catholic, who, on
'^^bruar)' 9, 1567, was blown up by gunpowder as the result of a treacher-
ies plot he had inspired. Three months after the death of her husband
^iiry married the Earl of Both well, whom public opinion accused of the
fflurder of Darnley.
257
MARY. QUEEN OF SCOTS.
From this time a series of misfortunes attended the queen, and a gen-
eral revolutionary uprising took place. In the battle of Carberry Hill
(June 15) Bothwell was defeated and fled, and Mary was confined in Loch-
leven Castle and compelled to abdicate. She escaped, however, and rallied
a new force, but was defeated at Langside, May 13, and fled to Hnj^land.
Here she was immediately imprisoned — first at Carlisle, after\vards in vari-
ous other places, and at last in Fotheringay Castle.
After eighteen years' imprisonment, during which she was the center of
Catholic plots, she was tried on a charge of complicity in the conspiracy of
Antony Babington against the life of Klizabelh, and on October 25, 1586.
a sentence of death was pronounced against her. On February i, 1587,
Elizabeth signed the warrant of execution, and on F'ebruary 8, Mary, Queen
of Scots, was beheaded. She insisted to the last that she was innocent of
Babington' s plot.
She was buried at Peterborough, whence, in 161 2, her body was re-
moved to the chapel of Henry VII. at WestminsUr.
At the intimation, in her death verdict rendered by the (jueen's council,
that her life was an impediment to the security <A the revealed religion,
Mary "seemed with a certain unwonted alacrity to Iriumph, giving Ood
thanks, and rejoicing in her lu*arl that she was held to he an instrument"
for the restoration of her own faith. This note of exultation as in martyr-
dom was maintained with unflinching courage to the last. She wrote to
Elizabeth and the Duke of (iuist* two k-tters of almost matchless eloquence
and pathos, admirable esjMcially for their loyal and grateful remembrance
of all her faithful servants.
That the life of Mary .Stuart was not onr of mmunglc-d innocence and
virtue is abundantly evident, but the exact UK'asurc of her guilt, or the exact
degree of her coinj)licity in the crinus conunitled for lur sakr and in her
name, has nc»t been made out. And still more obscurr and entangled seem
those ideas and passions from which such guilt >j)ran3L:. Thrrc are two
brilliant dramatical delineations of h<r character onr hv Schiller and the
other by Hjijrnson — and a number of j)rose works relalinii to her his-
tory that give us \arying estimati-s of this romantic and unhappy person-
age.
268
a®
ELEDNDRA D'ESTE ilNE TASSD.
•o^»
RaprDducBd frnm a palntiiicr by Ferdinand
Heilbuth, a G-erman painter. . The peculiar talent
□f Heilbuth in treating life and manners has vjun
hiin a wide reputatian. The Paris Salon gave
him a medal of hnnnr lu lEBl. His " Titian with
his Lady Love" and "On Monte Pincio " (the
latter In the Corcoran G-allery, Washington)' are
bath renowned pictures.
'^^(^ / V ^^5^^^
ELEONORA DESTE.
A. D. 1537-1581.
THE BELOVED OF THE ITALIAN POET TASSO.
^LEONORA D'ESTE, an Italian lady of illustrious descent, was
Ql daughter of Hercules H.. marquis of Kste, and Renie, daughter of
Louis XIL, king of France, and was born in 1537. She was en-
dowed by fcHtune with an exalted social station, and by nature with extraor-
dinary beauty, taste, and intellect ; but her chief claim to historical memo-
riafization was her relation with Tasso the poet.
Tasso was twenty-one years old when he appeared at the court of
Alphonso of Este. An indiscreet remark having been made by a certain
ca\'alicr upon his devotion to the princess Eleonora, he challenged the
ofiendcr, who, with three brothers to aid him, basely attacked the bard.
Tasso valiantly combated the whole four until interference put an end to
the dud. Alphonso felt offended at the cause of this rencontre, and sent
TasBointo exile, where he remained subject to the duke's recall.
Taaso was an admirer of beauty, and wrote verses to the charms of the
k>vdy Eleonora that could not but touch her heart. It is said that, being
^t the wedding of one of the Cionzago family, celebrated at the court of
^te, he, blinded by his passion, imj)ressed a kiss on the clieek of the prin-
"^'tts. The color mounted t<> Alphonso' s brow ; but he turned coldly to his
courticra, and said, **\Vhat a great pity that the hncst genius of tht* age-
^become suddenly mad ! "
I'pon this charge of madnc^ss, the j>rince caused Tasso to be shut up in
^he hospital of St. Anna. His \^n\^ years kA inij)ris()nnu-nt, his sufferings,
'■^'' laments, are well known. Obliged to witness the cruel j)unishnient ol
^iT lover, and knowing the inflexible (haracter (^f her brother, I'^leonora fell
•-to a slow fever, and died in 15S1, about a year after Tasso' s imprisonment,
l^ht doors of Tasso' s prison were at length opened : but she was dead I
'Omh, love, fortune, all had vanished : tame, it is true, remained. The
•^urd-crown was placed on his brow at Rome in the midst of a pompous
•t">tival : but this could not recompense him for his wasted youth and his
ioftt Eleonora.
261
OABRIELLE D'ESTREES.
A. D. 1571-1599.
MISTRESS OF HENRY IV. OF FRANCE.
•>e;H-w-'r9c.
^^ABRIELLE D'ESTREES, a descendant of one of the noblest
I®!' houses in Picardy, was born in 157 1, and died April 10, 1599.
Gabrielle was about twenty years of age when she met Henry for
the first time at the chateau of Coeuvres, where she resided with her family.
She was fair and of singularly beautiful complexion ; her eyes were
blue, and combined, in a remarkable degree, tenderness with brilliancy of
expression ; her hair had a golden hue, her forehead was bold and large ;
her whole presence was beaming with intelligence and instinct with gentie-
ness and grace.
She inspired the French monarch with a violent passion, which, however,
did not interrupt her relation with her old lover, the Duke of Belleg^rde.
But Henry still urged his suit, and often stole by the sentinels of his ene-
mies, in the dress of a j)easant, to see the object of his love. The heart oi
Gabrielle was at length moved by such ardor and devotion, and she be-
came the mistress of the chivalric monarch, who never loved any other
woman so passionately.
To escape the severe scrutiny of her father, Henry married her to a
nobleman named M. de IJancourt, as a nominal husband, and subsequendy
raised her to the rank of Marchioness of Monceaux, and in 1595 to that of
Duchess of Beaufort. At the same time he lavished riches upon her in
great profusion, and at the time of her death she was possessed of more
than twelve estates, some of which are to this day pointed out in the
vicinity of Paris.
Henry would have divorced liimself (as he afterwards did) froir
Margaret of X'alois, his legitimate wife, for the purpose of raising Gabriellt
to the throne of France, had it not been for his friend and ministe
Sully, with whose influence she was unable to cope. She had three chil
dren by the king — Casar and Alexander, afterwards Dukes of Vendome,
and Catharine Henrietta, subsequently the Duchess of Elbeuf.
262
BKATRICB OK CENCI.
A. D. 1583-1599.
"THE BEAUTIFUL PARRICIDE."
BEATRICE CENCI was the daughter of Francesco Cenci, a Roman
nobleman of colossal wealth. According to Muratori, Francesco
was twice married, Beatrice being the youngest of twelve children
by the first wife. After his second marriage he treated the children of his
^rst wife in a revolting manner, and was even accused of hiring bandits to
murder two of his sons on their return from Spain.
The beauty of Beatrice inspired him with the horrible and incestuous
desire to possess her person ; and with mingled lust and hate he persecuted
her from day to day, until circumstances enabled him to consummate his
brutality.
The unfortunate girl besought the help of her relatives, and of Pope
Clement V 1 1., but did not receive it ; whereupon, in company with her step-
mother and her brother, Giacomo, she planned the murder of her unnatural
F^ent, into whose brain two hired assassins drove a large nail, Septem-
**r9, 1598.
The crime was discovered, and both she and Giacomo were put to the
torture ; Giacomo confc*ssed, but Beatrice persisted in the declaration that
i»he was innocent. All, however, were condemned and beheaded, Septem-
ber 10. 1599.
Such is Muratori' s narrative. Others allei^e that Beatrice was the inno-
^t victim of an infernal plot. The results, howe\er, of Bestolotli's in-
vestigations go far to deprive the story of the Cenci tragedy of the romantic
elements on which Shelley's i)owerful drama mainly turns.
Francesco, it would appear, was profligate, but no monster ; Beatrice,
^^ the time she murdered her father, was not sixteen, hut twenty-one years
of age, was far from beautiful, and was probably the mother of an illegit-
'"late son. And Bestolotti finther sliows that the sweet and mournful
^^'^HJntenance which forms one of tht- treasures of the Barberini Palace in
Rome, cannot possibly be a portrait of Beatrice by Guido, who never
painted in Rome till some nine years after Beatrice's death.
MARGARBT OK VALOIS.
A. I>. 155)2-1615.
BEAUTIFUL AND PROFLIGATE QUEEN OF FRANCE.
MARGARET of Valois, queen of France, was born in 1552, and died
in Paris, March 27, 161 5. She was the daughter of Henry IL and
of Catharine de' Medici and was celebrated for her beauty, her
profligacy, and her talents. In 1572 she was married to the king of Na-
varre, afterward Henry IV. of France, the marriage being the pretext on
which the leading Protestants were assembled at Paris, to Ik? massacred on
the eve of St. Bartholomew. After his escape from thc*se tragic scenes,
Margaret was permitted to join him at Biarn, where she remained five
years, tolerating the king's infidelities, though he would not tolerate her
religion.
In 1 58 1, on the invitation of her mother, she returned to the French
court. There the profligacy of her life drew upon her the condemnation of
her brother, Henry III., who compelled her to return to her husband, by
whom she was received with bitter reproaches. .She fled from him, and took
up her residence at Agen, where she made war on him as a heretic. Thai
place being taken in 1585, she vainly sought another asylum, and was
seized and imprisoned in the fortress of I'sson ; but her arts made her
mistress of the place, from which she drove the governor and held it for
twenty years.
She became queen of France in 1594. <>n the triumph of her husband,
but he refused to restore her to freedom luitil she sliould renoimce her
rank, to which she would not consent until after the death of (»abrielle
D'Kstrees. They were divorced in 1599, but she did not recover her lib-
erty until some years later. She visited the court in 1605, where she did
homage to her successor, Marie de' Medici. The remaining ten years of
her life were passed in l*aris or in its vicinity.
Alnu^st to the last she led a vicious life ; but at length she fell into
hypochondria, and was terrified at the a|)[)roach (»f death. .She founded a
convent in Paris, the imnates of which were reijuired to have fme voices,
and herself instructed them in the nnisic which was restful to her.
POCAHONTAS.
A.D. 1A0A?-1617.
INDIAN HEROINE OF COLONIAL TIMES.
FOCAHONTAS, an Indian woman of Virginia, daughter of the chief
Powhatan, was born about 1595, and died in (^ravesend, England,
in March, 16 17. She was remarkable for her friendship toward the
EngHsh colonists, a striking evidence of which is said to have been given
when she was about twelve years old.
Captain John Smith was taken prisoner, and it was decided to put him
to death. His head was laid upon a stone, and the savages were brandish-
ing their clubs prej)aratory to dashing out his brains, when Pocahontas
threw herself upon the captive's body, and her intercession with her father
saved his life. Recent researches discredit this story.
When Smith returned to Jamestown, he sent [)rcsents to Pocahontas
and her father : and after this, according to Smith's narrative, Pocahontas
*' with her wild train visited Jamestown as freely as her father's habitation."
In 1609 she passed through the wood in the night to inform Smith of a
plot formed by her father to destroy him. in 161 2 she was living in the
territory of the Indian chief Jaj)azaws. Captain Samuel Argall bribed Jap-
azaws to betray her intt^ his hands, and began to treat with Pocahontas for
her restitution, but they were unable to agree.
While she was on shipboard, an attachment sprang up between her and
an Englishman named John Rolfc, and the consent of Sir Thomas Dale and
of her father having been gained, they were married at Jamestown in April,
1613. A peace of many years duration between the English and the In-
dians was the consecpience of the union. Before her marriage she was l)ap-
tized, receiving the name of Rebecca. In 16 16 she accomj)anied Dale to
England, where she was an object of great interest t<^ all classes of people,
and was presented at court. Pocahontas prepared to leave England, but
she suddenly died when on the point of t-mbarking.
She left one son, Thomas Rolfe. who was educated by his uncle, a Lon-
don merchant, and in after life went to X'irginia, where he became a person
of note and influence.
2G5
ANNB OK AUSTRIA.
A. I>. 160S-1666.
QUEEN MOTHER OF LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE.
n»-+j
^JJfNNE of Austria, queen of France, daughter of Philip III. king of
' ^^^ Sj)ain, was born in 1602, and died January 20, 1666. She was
married December 25, 1615, to Louis XIIL, and was the mother 0/
Louis XIV. Hardly any queen of France was so much calumniated, or so
undeservedly unhappy.
Cardinal Richelieu, the all-powerful minister of the weak Louis XIIL,
dreading the influence of the wife, or, as others pretend, having been re-
fused by her as a lover, succeeded in prejudicing the mind of the king till
he allowed Anne to be continually persecuted, exiled, and, at times, left to
suffer the greatest penury. Richelieu accused her of conspiracy with
the Dukes of Lorraine, with England, with her own brother, the king of
Spain, with all the enemies of France, and with the conspirators at the
court, against his own supremacy.
When Richelieu represented her as wishing to get rid of Louis to marry
Gaston, and Anne was compelled to appear before the king's counsel to
answer this grave charge, her dignity here came to her aid and she scorned
to make a direct reply. She merely observed, contemptuously, that too
little was to be gained by the change, to render such a design on her part
probable.
At the death of Louis XIIL, the parliament in 1643 appointed her
regent during the minority of Louis XIV. The Cardinal Mazarin, who,
likewise, was said to have been her lover, ruled in her name, and this
occasioned the revolt of some of the princes of the blood and other French
grandees, — a rising known in French history under the name of the
Fronde.
She possessed a peculiar and extremely delicate sense of feeling over
the whole body ; scarcely any linen or caml)ric was fine enough for her
use. It was another peculiarity of hers, that, though she loved flowers
passionately, she could not bear the view of natural or even painted roses.
266
ANNE HUTCHINSON.
A. I>. 1090-1643.
RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIAST AND REFORMER.
(jVj^'NE HUTCHINSON, the founder of the Antinomian party in the
•*-^ New England colonies, was the daughter of a Lincolnshire, Eng-
land, clergyman named Marbury, and was born in 1590. In Eng-
land she was interested in no preaching but that of John Cotton and her
brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, and it was her desire to enter the minis-
tr\' of the former, which induced her to follow him to New England.
She came to Boston with her husband, September 18, 1634, was admitted
a member of the Boston church, and rapidly acquired esteem and influence.
She instituted meetings of the women of the church to discuss sermons and
doctnnes, in which, with a ready wit, bold spirit, and imposing familiarity
with the Scriptures, she gave prominence to j)eculiar speculations.
Her tenets were that the person of the Holy Spirit dwells in every be-
li^er, and that the inward revelations of the Spirit, the conscious judgment
0^ the mind, are of paramount authority. Amoqg her partisans were the
young j/ovemor Vane, Cotton, Wheelwright, and almost the whole Boston
church, while the country clergy were generally united against her.
She soon threw the whole colony into a flame. The progress of her
s^tinients occasioned, in 1637, t:he first synod in America. "The dis-
pute, ' siiys Bancroft, *' infused its spirit into tvcTvthing ; it interfered with
"^*^ levy of troops for the Pequot war ; it influenced the respuct shown to
tfie majrist rates, the distribution of town lots, the assessment of rates ; and
it last the C(mlinued existence of the two parties was considered inconsis-
^twith public peace."
Accordingly, Mrs. Hutchinson was called before the court in November,
^"37; and, being convicted of traducing the ministers and advancing
^'*rs. was banished from Massachusetts. She went with her husband to
'^Me Island, and in 1642, after her husband's death, removed into the
^<^^'tor\' of the Dutch beyond New Ha\'en. Here, in 1643, her home was
attacked and set on fire by the Indians, and herself and all her family,
excepting one child, who was carried captive, perished.
267
LADY FANS H AWE.
A. D. 169A-ia80.
NOTABLE FOR CONJUGAL AFFECTION.
^)nNE HARRISON FANSHAWE, the eldest daughter of Sir John
-1-A- Harrison, of Balls, England, was born in London, March 25, 1625.
Her mother was Margaret Fanshawe, of an ancient and highly re-
spectable family ; and, what was of more importance to her daughter, she
was an eminently pious as well as an accomplished woman. When about
nineteen, Anne Harrison married Sir Richard Fanshawe, a relative of her
mother. He was a lawyer, went abroad with his wife, arid was finally
appointed secretary to the English ambassador at the Spanish court.
As a supporter of Charles IL, he was taken and imprisoned after the
batde of Worcester, during which imprisonment his wife exhibited the
highest form of devotion. He was finally released, on heavy bail, and was
joined by her at Tankerslys Park, Yorkshire, where husband and wife de-
voted themselves to literary pursuits. After the restoration. Sir Richard
was sent to the court of Portugal, and subsequently to Spain. While
occupying the latter post, he suddenly died.
The queen of Spain was so moved by the desolation of the heart-broken
widow, that she offered her a pension of thirty thousand ducats per annum
if she would embrace the Catholic religion. Lady Fanshawe was deeply
grateful for this kindly interest, but refused to accept any favors with such
conditions attached.
Through the financial assistance of Anne of Austria, the remains of Sir
Richard were sent to England for interment and subsecjucntly Lady Fan-
shawe erected a hand.some monument to the memory of her husband.
Their union of twenty- two years had been a pattern of conjugal fidelity and
happiness ; the widow continued as constant to the memory of the dear
departed as she had been in her affection to liim while he lived. Her
whole aim and jjlan of life was to educate her children : and she wrote her
own Memoir * ' for her dear and only son. ' ' She survived her husband
fourteen years, dying January. 1680.
268
CATHARINE PHILIPS.
A. I>. 1631-1664.
EARLIEST ENGLISH SENTIMENTAL WRITER.
eATHARINE PHILIPS, "the matchless Orinda/' was born the
daughter of a respectable Presbyterian London merchant, on Jan-
uary I, 1 63 1. A precocious child, she early became strongly royal-
ist in feeling, and in her seventeenth year she married a worthy Welsh
gentleman, James Philips of Cardigan Priory.
Her earliest poem was an address to Henry Vaughan, the Silurist, on
the appearance of his Olor Iscamis. About the same time she seems to
have assumed' her melodious nom de plume of Orinda, having formed
among her neighbors of either sex a society of Friendship, the members
of which must needs be re-baptized — the ladies as Lucasia, Rosania,
Regina, Valeria, Polycrife ; the gentlemen as Palaemon, Sylvander, An-
tenor (her own husband), and Poliarchus (Sir Charles Cotterel, her greatest
Wend, to whom her forty-eight Letters were published in 1705).
Orinda is the earliest English sentimental writer, and she has tears at
*ill e\'en for the marriages of the lady members, which she resents as out-
^es on the sufficiency of friendship. Yet she was a worthy woman and
a good wife, despite her overstrained sentimentality, to whom Jeremy
Taylor dedicated his Measures and OJJlces of Friendship. She went to
^Min in 1662, and here Roger, Earl of Query, and the rest gave her a
"Ottering reception. On a visit to London she caught smallpox, and died
He 22, 1664.
At Dublin she translated Corneille's Povipcy, and, in her last year, the
P'^'iter part of his Horaee. Her poems were surreptitiously printed at
l-ondon in 1663, but an auth(>rit.iti\e edition was issued in 1667. The
"^^tchless Orinda' s poetry has long since faded into forget fulness, despite
^he chorus of contemporary praise from Cowley and every poet of note.
'^^Is found her poems in 1S17 while writing Kndymion, and in a letter
^*^ Re)'nolds speaks of them as showing "a most delicate fancy of the
'^^cher kind." Her daughter, Joan, was also a talented writer of verse,
^cording to Mr. Gosse.
269
CHRISTINA OK SWEDEN.
A. D. 1626-16S9.
DAUGHTER OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.
eHRISTINA, queen of Sweden, only child of the great Gustavus
Adolphiis, was born December 17, 1626, and succeeded her father
in 1632, when only six years old. Distinguished equally by beauty
and the possession of a lively imagination, a good memory, and uncommon
intelligence, she received a man's rather than a woman's education, and to
this may partly be attributed the many eccentricities of her life.
During Christina's minority, the kingdom was governed by the five
highest officers of state, the principal being Chancellor Oxenstiern. In
1644 she assumed the reins of power, and in 1650 was crowned with the
title of king. She had previously declared her cousin, Charles (Gustavus,
her successor. For four years thereafter she ruled the kingdom with vigor,
and was remarkable for her patronage of learned nun, such as (irotius,
Salmasius, and Deticartes. In 1654, however, at tlie age of twenty-eight,
weary of the personal restraint which royalty imposed on her, she alxlicated
in favor of her cousin, reserving to herself sufficient revenues, entire inde-
pendence, and supreme authority over her suite and household.
I'pon leaving Sweden, she proceeded to Brussels, where she embraced
the Roman Catholic religion. .She next went to Rome, which she entered
on horseback, in the costume of an Amazon, with great jxunp. Confirmed
by Pope Alexander \*ll.,she adopted the surnanu- of .Xlesandra. She
next visited Paris ; and there in 1657 she caused her grand ecpierry, Mon-
aldeschi. who had enjoyed her entire confidence, to be j)nt to di^ath in her
own household for treason. The death of the king in i^Cx) caused her to
hasten from Rome to .Sweden, but, failing in her attem|)t to be reinstatcnJ
on the throne, she again left the country. In 1666 she asj)ired to the
crown of Poland, but was unnoticed by the Poles.
The remainder of her life was spent at Koine in artistic an<l scientific
pursuits. Here she live<l lor some twenty y<ars, (inarrding. intriguing,
and collecting : corresjionding with men of letters and founding academies :
consume<l by the desire for that political power which she had thrown
2:0
LADY PAKINGTON.
d. A. D. 1679.
AUTHORESS AND MORALIST.
T ADY DOROTHY PAKINCiTON, daughter of Lord Coventry, and
JL/ wife of Sir John Pakington, \vi\s eminent for her learning and piety,
and ranked among her friends several celebrated divines. A volume
entitled 71k^ Whole Duty of Man was ascril>ed to her at first, though the
mistake in authorship has since been discovered.
Her acknowledged works are, The Gentiemen s Callinfr^ the Ladies'
Callings The Government of the Tonfi^ue, The Christian s Birthright, and
The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. Her theological works are
strictly orthodox, and evince ardent piety of fe<»ling. She was at the time
of her decease engaged in a work entitled The Government of the Thoughts^
which was praised in high terms by Dr. Fell ; this work, however, she did
not finish.
Lady Pakington had ri'ceived a learned education, which w*as not at
that time uncommon to give to women of high rank ; that she used her
talents and learning wisely and well, we have this testimony in the writings
of Dr. Fell. He s;iys of her, ** Lady Pakington was wise, humble, tem|>er-
ate, chaste, patient, charitable, and devout ; she iive<l a whole age of great
austerities, and maintained in the midst of them an undisturlx'd serenity."
She died May lo, 1679.
CtirlMtino of i^wi.Mlori continued,
away, and endeavoring to assert her vanishetl influence to the last. She
wrote a great deal, but her Afaxifns and Sentemrs, and Ke flections on ike
Life and Actions of Alexander the ihcat, are all that have been pre-
served.
Her death ()r(nirri"<i in Rome. .April 19, 1689. and she w;ls buried under
a sonorous e|)ita|)h. in St. Peter's.
Her magnitirtnt library was purchased by Alexander VI 1 1., her collec-
tion of antic juities and part of her paintings by a nephew of the Pope, and
the remaindtr of lur pictures by the regent of Orleans.
271
MADAJVIE DE IVIAINTENON.
A. D. 168A-1719.
SECOND WIFE OF LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE.
f I ARANQOISE d*Aubign6 Maintcnoii was born at Niort, Xovemher 27,
-L 1635, ^^^ died at St. Cyr, April 15, 17 19. Her l)irthplace was a
prison, Chateau Trompette, where her father. Constant d'Aiibign6, Baron
of Surimeau, was confined for having killed his wife and her lover, whom
he had taken in adulter^'.
The mother of Fran^oise was the daughter of the governor of the prison,
whom d*Auhigne had persuaded to marry him secretly. In 1639 he was
discharged from prison, and with his wife and children emigrated to Mar-
tinique, where he died in the utmost poverty. His widow returned to
France, whither she was soon followed by her daughter, who, after various
vicissiludt»s and much suffering from poverty and ill treatment on the part
of her relatives, found herself, at the age of fifteen, in Paris, an inmate, in a
dependent and almost menial position, of the house of her g<>(imr)th«r, the
Countess de Neuillant, who had converted her from Calvinism to Catholi-
cism.
The comic poet Scarron, who was a paralytic and a cripj)le. lived in the
same street with the Countess de Neuillant, became interested in the young,
beautiful, and intelligent girl, whose adventures had been related to him.
and furnished money to enable her to enter a convent, whirh |>overty had
hitherto prevented her from doing. Fran«;oise called to thank her bene-
factor, and at their t'lrst interview he j)roposed to lur to bn ome his wif<\
.After a week's deliberation she consented, and they were married in 1651.
She was at this lime exreetlingly beautiful, graceful, and witty, and the
house of Scarron soon became the ri-sort of the most brilliant intellects of
Paris. Scarron died October 14, i66<..). leaving his young widow nearly
penniless, his j)ension ceasing at his death.
In 1669 she become g«»verness to the children of Loui> XIW by
Madame de Montespan, much to the dissatisfaction of the king, wlio at tirst
did not like the extreme gravity and reserve of the young widow.
Her talents and wisdom, however, soon attra* t<*d his attention, and she
2:2
TARQUINIA MO:pSA.
d. A. D. 1650.
ITALIAN BEAUTY, WIT, AND SCHOLAR.
BAUGHTER of Camillus Molsa, knight of the order of St. James of
Spain, and granddaughter of Francis Maria Molsa, a celebrated
Italian poet, was a woman of very high accomplishments, uniting
in an extraordinary degree, wit, learning, and beauty. Her father, observ-
ing her genius, had her educated with her brothers, and by the best
roasters, in the chief branches of literature and science. Some of the most
distinguished men of the time were her instructors and eulogists. She was
mistress of Latin, Greek, and the ethics of Aristotle, Plato, and Plutarch.
She also understood Hebrew and natural philosophy, and wrote her own
language, the Tuscan, with ease and spirit. She played on the lute and
violin, and is also said to have had a highly cultivated singing voice.
Tarquinia Molsa was greatly esteemed by Alphonsus II., Duke of
Ferrara, and his court. The city of Rome, by a decree of the senate, in
wWch all her excellencies were set forth, honored her with the title of
Sinf^uiar, and bestowed on her the rights of a Roman citizen. This
<ltCTeewas passed December 8, 1600.
She was married to Paulus Porrinus, but losing her husband while still
ven* young, she would never consent to be married again. H(t grief was
Sfi acute at the rt*sult of his death that she was called a second Artemisia.
She retained her personal charms till an advanced period of life, confirming
the opinion of Euripides, that " the autumn of beauty is not less pleasing
than its spring." Although so courted and extolled, she avoided notice
i'ld distinction, and retained to the last her fondness for a retired life.
Madame <!•* Nlalntemon continued,
t)ecame his confidant and adviser, was made marchioness, and took the
n^rae of Maintenon from an estate, and, after resolutely refusing to become
rhe king's mistress, became his wife by a secret marriage in 1683. From
ihh time till his death, Louis was greatly under her intluence, after which
trvcnt she retired to the convent of St. Cyr.
273
m'
LOUISB DB LA VALLIERE.
A. D. 1644-1710.
MISTRESS OF LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE.
^LLE. DE LA VALLIERE, duchess, a French lady celebrated for
her intimate relations with Louis XIV., born in Tours in August,
1644, died in Paris, June 6, 17 10.
After the death of her father, a French nobleman and superior officer,
her mother married the Baron de St. Remy, who was attached to the
household of the Duchess of Orleans. Introduced at court and appointed
maid of honor to Henrietta of England, sister-in-law of Louis XIV.,
Louise de La Valliere soon received the homage of several distinguished
persons, whose attentions she discountenanced from a feeling of sincere love
and admiration for the king.
All who became acquainted with the young lady were struck with her
modesty, gentleness, and truthfulness, as well as with her personal charms
and varied accomplishments ; and the most eminent French writers, as
Racine, La Fontaine, and Madame de Sevigne, bestow the highest encomi-
ums upon her virtues and graces.
Her love for Louis XI \'. was as enthusiastic as it was disinterested :
and after having for some time resisted his advances, she became his mis-
tress in 1661, but on several occasions felt iniptlled by conscientious
scniples to desert her lover, who twice succeeded in bringing her back from
the conven^in which she had taken refuge. In 1674, however, she left him
definitely, and took the veil in the Carmelite convent of the Faubourg St.
Jacques under the name of Sister Louise. She received the visits of the
queen, the Duchess of Orleans, and other warm admirers, and, engaged in
works of piety and charity, spent the rest of Irt life in the seclusion of
that convent.
She bore four children to the king, two of whom were K-gitimatized,
Mile, de Hlois, who married the Prince of C'onti, and llu* Count of Verman-
dois. She wrote a book entitled Krfintions on thr Mm v of (lod, by a
Penitent Jl on/an, 1680. A collection of her letters was also published in
1767. Her life has been a very sugj^estive literary theme.
274
ANNK DACIER.
A. D. 1654-1720.
CELEBRATED SCHOLAR AND LINGUIST.
|XXE LEFEV^RE DACIER, a French woman distinguished in letters
and as a scholar, was born in Saumur, France, in March, 1654, ^^^
died in Paris, August 17, 1720.
She was the daughter of the celebrated scholar, Tanneguy-Lcfevre, and
acquired her first instruction from overhearing his lessons to her brother.
lefe\Te, amazed at the extent of the information thus obtained, devoted
fcimself to her education : and at his death, in 1672, she was one of the
nwst accomplished scholars in Europe.
Immediately subsequent to the death of her father, she went to reside in
hris, where in 1674 she published an edition of Callimachus. The repu-
tation acquired by this work procured her an invitation to assist in prepar-
njg the Delphin editions of the cl.issics. In the discharge of this duty she
P^pared editions of Florus, Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, Dictys Cretensis,
and Dares Phrygius.
In 1683 she was married to Andre Dacier, a favorite of her father, under
*hom they had for many years been fellow pupils. This marriage was called
"<he marriage of the Greek and Latin." Two years afterward, they both
abjured Protestantism, and received from the king a pension of two thou-
sand livres. Madame Dacier tlu-nceforth continued to devote herself no less
assiduously to literary j)ursuits, and produced translations of sexeral plays
^ Plautus. the whole of Terence, the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, the
"utusanti Clouds of Aristophanes, and the whole of Anacrconand Sappho.
*^"t translations from Homer involved her in a controxersy with M. de la
•'"tic. and othe^^, concerning the comj)arative merits of ancient and mod-
^■"^ literature, Madame Dacier vigorously sustaining the former. She also
agisted her husband in the translation of Marcus .Aurelius and Plutarch's
Lives.
She was distinguished for modesty and. amiability, and, amid her en-
jrr^^sing literary avocations, di<l not neglect lur domestic and maternal
Juries.
275
ANNE KILLIGREW.
A. D. 1660-1M5.
ENGLISH ARTIST AND POETESS.
(rSsr*.aS^
^^|AUGHTER of Henry Killigrew, born in London in 1660, died in
M^ June, 1685, was characterized by one of her admirers as "a Grace
for beauty, and a Muse for wit." Her father was one of the preb-
endaries of Westminster some time before the restoration of Charles II.
The daughter showed indications of genius very early and this being
carefully cultivated, she became eminent in the arts of poetry and painting.
An exhibition of the latter is her portrait of the Duke of York (afterward
James II.) and his duchess, to whom she was a maid of honor. She also
painted some historical pictures and some pieces of still life, for her own
amusement.
She was a woman of exemplary piety and virtue. Dryden speaks of
her in the highest terms, and wrote a long ode to her memor}-, from
which the following stanza is extracted : —
** Now all those charms, that blooming grace.
The well-proportioned shape and beauteous face.
Shall never more be seen by mortal eyes:
In earth the much lamented virgin lies! •
Not wit, nor piety, could fate prevent,
Nor was the cru»*l destiny content
To finish all the murder at a blow.
To snap at once her life and beauty too;
But, like a hardened felon, took a pride
To work more mischievously slow,
And plunder 'd first, and then destroyed.
Oh I double sacriltrge on things divine.
To rob the reiique and deface the shiine!
But thus Orinda died :
Heaven by the same disease did l)oth translate.
As equal were their souls, as equal was their fate."
She died of smallpox, and was buried in the chapel of the Savoy hospi-
tal, on the north side of which is a j)lain monnnient of marble aiul freestone
erected to her memory, and hxed in the wall, on which is a Latin inscrip-
tion.
270
gUKKN ANNE.
Reproduced from a copper etching after the original portrait
QUEEN ANNE.
A. I>. 1086-1714.
LAST SOVEREIGN OF THE HOUSE OF STUART.
/|f\NE, queen of Great Britain and Ireland, was born at St. James
\Ji Palace, London, on February 6, 1665. She was the second
daughter of James IL of Enghind by his first wife, Anne Hyde, the
daughter of the famous Earl of Clarendon. When she was six years of
age, her mother died ; and her father soon after professed himself a mem-
ber of the Church of Rome ; but his daughters were educated in the prin-
ciples of the Church of England, to which Anne always retained an ardent
ii not a very enlightened attachment.
In 1683 Anne was married to Prince Cicorge of Denmark, an indolent
and good-natured man, who concerned himself little about public affairs,
^ had as little capacity for dealing with them. At an early age she
^<)nned an intimacy with Sarah Jennings (afterwards the Duchess of Marl-
•^orough), who exercised an almost unbounded influence over her, both
Wore and after her accession to the throne. She was the mother of seven-
^^tti children, all of whom died young and before she became queen.
In the revolution of 1688, Anne supported the cause of the Prince of
^^rangc, but was afterwards implicated in intrigues for tht^ restonition of her
>'Uher. She succeeded William III., who died March 8, 1702, at a time
^ hen the strife of parties was extremely violent. She pursued the foreign
policy of the late king, which involved luigland in the long war of the
Spanish succession as the ally of Austria anil the enemy of I*' ranee.
Amoi^ the important events of the reign were a number of sii;nal victories
gained by the Duke of Marlborough over the armies of Louis XIV., and
^^t union of England and .Scotland in 1707. Her political principles, if
^ht had any, were favorable to royal preroi^ative rather than constitutional
Ji^y, and rendered her |)artial to the Tories.
She became gradually alierijited from ihtr nuclus^ of Marlborough, who
*as a Whig, and transferred h«r fa\oritiMn to .Mr>. Mashani, whose in-
^4ru<-"^ undermined the Whig party so effectually, that the Tory statesmen.
the Earl <if Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke, came into power in 17 10. The
MARY ASTELL.
A. D. 1668-1731.
ENGLISH AUTHORESS AND LINGUIST.
^"v HIS voluminous writer was the daughter of a merchant of Newcastle-
Vr upon-Tyne, where she was born in 1668. She was well educated,
and among other accomplishments was mistress of French, and had
a good knowledge of the Latin tongue. Her uncle, a clergyman, observ-
ing her uncommon predilection, took her under his tuition, and taught her
mathematics, logic, and philosophy. She left her native place when she was
about the age of twenty, and spent the remaining part of her life at London
and Chelsea. Here she pursued her studies with assiduity, acquired great
proficiency in the exact sciences, and extended her knowledge of the classic
authors. Among these latter, Seneca, Epictetus, Hierocles, Antoninus,
Tully, Plato, and Xenophon were her favorites.
She wrote .An Essay in Defense of the Female Sex\ A Serious Pro-
posal to the Ladies, and many other books and essays with the purpose
of raising the standard of female education and female character. She
was, however, a woman conservative and decidedly opposed to the new-
fangled spirit of the times. She died at Chelsea, May 11, 1731, and was
there buried.
Queen Ann*^ continaed,
queen and these Tory ministers concurred in designs and intrigues to secure
the succession to her brother, the Pretender. The Kuroj)ean war was
ended by the treaty of Utrecht, Lord Bolingbroke became j>rime minister
in place of the Karl of Oxford, and the poor (jueen was kept in a state of
constant unrest through the (juarrcls of her ministers. She died of
apoplexy on August i, 17 14, and was succeeded by (jeor^o I.
Her reign, illustrated by the genius of Newton, Addison. Pope, Boling-
broke, Swift, DeFoe, and Arbuthnot, was almost as celebrated in literature
as the Augustan age of Rome, although she did little to make it so.
Queen Anne was of middle size, and c<^)mely though not beautiful
She was virtuous, conscientic^us, and afTectionate, more worthy of esteem
as a woman than of administration as a queen.
280
ABIGAIL MASHAIVI.
i
A. D. 1670-1734.
FAVORITE OF QUEEN ANNE OF ENGLAND.
"l^RS. MASHAM'S name occupies a prominent place in the political
\Y-1- writings which characterized the reign of Queen Anne. She was
the daughter of Mr. Hill, a wealthy merchant of London, by reason
d whose bankruptcy she was obliged to become the attendant of Lady Riv-
ers. From this position she was advanced to the place of waiting maid to
l\\e princess Anne, and after her mistress ascended the throne gradually
acquired considerable influence over her. She was not a woman of superior
mind or attainments, but there were many points of sympathy between the
queen and herself, which may account for the ascendency of this favorite.
She possessed great powers of mimicry, and considerable taste in music, of
vWch latter accomplishment the queen was very fond.
In 1707, Abigail Hill married Mr. Masham, a man of ancient family,
one of the pages of the court. This marriage was performed secretly, and
m the presence of the queen. The Duchess of Marlborough, who had hith-
^obeen a favorite of the queen, on learning these facts, gave way to such
Violence, that it severed finally the tie between herself and her sovereign ;
•*"^ in a short time she was deprived of all offices and dignities at court,
'^e of her situations, that of the privy-seal, was given to Mrs. Masham.
l*olIowing upon this, Mrs. Masham leagued herself with the queen's
Wy, who were intriguing to remove the Duke of Marlborough and his
adherents, and became an instrument in their hands. In 171 1 a change of
n^'nbtr)' took place, and Mr. Masham was raised to the peerage. Hence-
^^^, Lady Masham became involved in all the intrigues of the court,
specially in those of the Tories in favor of the exiled House of Stuart,
"hich she warmly advocated.
Mrs. Masham was plain in appearance, and delicate in health. One of
i^r physical blemishes was a remarkably red nose, furnishing the wits of the
day with a constant subject at which to level their shafts. After the death
of the queen she lived in great retirement, and died at an advanced age.
281
MARY II., QUEKN OF ENQLAND.
A. D. 1062-1694. '
WIFE AND CO-REGENT OF WILLIAM lU.
.^_^i_^
MARY IL was born at St. James Palace, Westminster, April 30, 1662.
She was the daughter of James II. by Anne Hyde, his first wife.
She married, November 4, 1677, at the age of fifteen, William,
Prince of Orange, and sailed two weeks after to the Hague. Here she
lived till February 12, 1689, when accepting a solemn invitation from the
states of England she followed her husband to London.
The throne was declared vacant by the flight of James II., and William
and Mary were crowned as next heirs April 11, 1689. Though Mary was
declared joint possessor of the throne with her husband, yet the administra-
tion of the government was left entirely to him. This arrangement cost
Mary no sacrifice, but was in strict accord with her desire. "There is but
one command which I wish him to obey," said she, **and that is, * Hus-
bands, love your wives.' For myself, I shall follow the injunction, * Wives,
be obedient to your husbands in all things.* "
She kept the promise voluntarily made, and all her efforts were directed
to promote her husband's happiness, and make him beloved by the English
people. He had great confidence in her abilities, and when, during his
absence in Ireland and on the continent, she was left the regent of the
kingdom, she managed parties at home with much prudence, and governed
with a discretion not inferior to his own.
Queen Mary was strongly attached to the Protestant religion and the
Church of England, and was evidently led to consider its preservation a
paramount duty, even when opposed to the claims of filial obedience. The
unfriendly terms on which she lived with her sister, afterward Queen
Anne, have often been alluded to as a blemish on her character. But
political jealousies, and the foolish attachment of Anne to overbearing
favorites, may sufficiently account for this rupture. Aside from this, Mar)'
was, in truth, an amiable and excellent queen, and by her example made
industry and domestic virtue fashionable. She died of smallpox, at Ken-
sington, in the year 1694.
282
CATHARINE I. OF RUSSIA.
A. D. 1684-1727.
QUEEN OF PETER THE GREAT.
— -^t=#;-<g*- - -
CATHARINE I., Empress of Russia, was a peasant's daughter, and her
original name was Martha Skavranska. Her parents lived at Rin-
g^, a small village not far from Dorpt, on Lake X'itcherve, in Livonia.
^Hedate of her birth was April 15, 1684. Being left an orphan in her fif-
^<*enth year, she was brought up chiefly by a Lutheran pastor named
Gliick, in Marienburg, Livonia.
In 1702 she married a Swedish dragoon, but Marienburg being taken
^y the Russians in the same year, she was made prisoner, and became the
mistress of Prince Menschikoflf. She then attracted the notice of Peter the
Great, and won so much on his affections that he married her ; and the
tnarriage was publicly avowed in 1711. Some years prior to this, however,
she went over to the Greek Church, and took the name of Catharina
Alexievna.
When Peter the Great and his army seemed entirely in the power of the
*"rkish army on the Pruth in 171 1, Catharine, according to the common
account, through skillful bribery, procured the deliverance of the Russians.
Iroin this time forth she was received with great fa\or and was solemnly
downed in 17 12.
On the death of Peter the Great, in 1725, she was acknowledged
fc-o^press and sole ruler of all the Russians. She showed herself worthy
^^ this high station by completing the grand designs which lur illustrious
consort had begun. The first thing she did on her accession, was to cause
^'^r)' jrallows to be taken down, and all instruments of torture to be de-
stroyed. She instituted a new order of knighthood, and performed many
actions worthy of a great mind.
She was much beloved for her great humanity, but ere long began to
yield to the influence of a number of faxorites, addicted herself to drunk-
enness, ami lived such a life as could not fail to hurry her to her grave.
She died May 17, 1727. Her daughter — Elizabeth — became empress.
283
LADY MONTAGU.
A. D. 1690-1768.
BRILLIANT SOCIAL LEADER AND WIT.
rVV ARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, born about 1690 at Thoresby,
\ J / Nottinghamshire, England, was the eldest daughter of Evelyn
^ Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston, and Lady Mary Fielding. She
was a clever, attractive child, the pride and delight of her father, who,
having lost his wife in 1694, ^"^ continuing a widower, introduced his
daughter to society, and made her preside at his table at a very early age.
In 17 1 2 she married, without the consent of her father, Edward
Wortley Montagu, eldest son of Hon. Sydney Montagu. For more than
three years after her marriage, she lived near Sheffield, where her son was
born, her husband being kept principally in London during this time by his
parliamentary duties. On the accesssion of George L, Mr. Montagu
obtained a seat at the Treasury Board, and from this time, Lady Mary lived
in London, where she gained a brilliant reputation by her wit and beauty,
and was on terms of intimate friendship with Addison, Pope, and other
literary men of the day.
In 17 16 Mr. Montagu was appointed ambassador to the Porte, and in
August of that year he set out for Constantinople, accompanied by his
wife. They remained abroad till 17 18, and during this time Lady Mary
wrote the well known Letters to her sister, Pope, and other friends. The
Letters give a true description of Eastern life and manners, and are written
in a clear, lively style, sparkling with wit and humor. The next twenty
years of her life she passed in PZngland.
For reasons which are not well known, in 1739, she left England and
her husband, from whom, however, she parted on very good terms, though
they never met again. She lived in Italy, first on the shores of the lake
of Iseo, and afterwards at Venice, till 1761, when at the request of her
daughter, the Countess of Bute, she returned to England. She died
August 21, 1762. Of her two children, both of whom survived her, one
was the eccentric and profligate Edward Wortley Montagu, and the other
became the wife of the Marquis of Bute, a distinguished nobleman.
284
MARIK DEFFAND.
A. D. 1697-1780.
PATRON OF FASHION AND LITERATURE.
s-*-:
QX accomplished French woman, resplendent in the age of Louis XV. ,
was born in Paris in 1697, ^"d died in the same city September 24,
1780. She was of noble birth, and was educated in a convent, but
at an early age astonished her parents by her skeptical opinions on religious
subjects.
At h*enty years of age she was married to the Marquis du Deffand,
irom whom her indiscretions soon caused her to be separated, after which
she launched into a career of fashionable dissipation, and for many years
was one of the most brilliant ornaments of the court of Louis XV. Al-
though incapable from a natural selfishness and want of sympathy of enter-
taining the passion of love, she knew how to inspire it in others ; and over
the greater part of her numerous lovers, among whom, it is said, was the
^ent himself, her influence remained unimpaired until their dotage.
Her conversational powers and clear, cool judgment caused her to be
courted by the most eminent men of the time, and when in her fifty-sixth
y^r she became totally blind, her salons in the convent of St. Joseph were
the favorite resort of Montestjuieu, X'oltaire, President Henault, David
Hume, D'AIembert, and many others. At this period of her life she be-
c^e acquainted with Horace Walpole, between whom and herself a cor-
^pondence was for many years carried on.
As she grew old her selfish traits developed more disagreeably, and
the ungenerous manner in which she treated her companion and reader,
Mile, de Lespinasse, alienated many of her friends. Her hitter years were
"^ked by i>eevishness and cnnuL and she died unhappy after several
"Availing efforts to consecrate herself to the life of a devotee.
Her epistolary writings comprise her correspondence with H6nault,
•Vontes<}uieu, D'AIembert, and the Duchess of Maine, and with Horace
U'alpole. Her prose style is a model of elegance, but her poetry never
rose above mediocrity.
285
MARQUISE DU CHATELET.
A. D. 1706-1749.
NOTORIOUS FOR HER LIAISON WITH VOLTAIRE.
^ABRIELLE EMILIE DU CHATELET-LOMONT, one of the
Vjt most remarkable women of her time, notorious for intimacy with
Voltaire, was born at Paris, December 17, 1706. At an early
period she displayed a great aptitude for the acquisition of knowledge.
She studied Latin and Italian with her father, the Baron de Bretuil, and
subsequently betook herself with zeal to mathematics and the physical
sciences. Maupertius was her instructor in geometry, and the works of
Newton and Leibnitz became her constant study. It was while thus dev^ot-
ing herself that she met Voltaire.
Distinguished alike for her beauty and talent, she soon found a host of
suitors for her hand. Her choice fell on the Marquis du Chatalet-Lomont,
• but her marriage did not hinder her from forming, in 1733, a liaison with
Voltaire, who came to reside with her at Cirey, a chateau on the borders of
Champagne and Lorraine, belonging to her husband. Here they studied,
loved, quarreled, and loved again, for several years.
In 1747 Madame du Chatelet, however, became sensible to the brilliant
qualities of a certain M. Saint- Lambert, a captain of the Lorraine Guards ;
and the result was that the philosopher had to make room for the soldier.
Voltaire was both grieved and indignant on discovering that he had a rival,
but Madame du Chatelet' s assurances of unabated friendship reconciled
and induced him to remain near her. She died at Luneville, September
10, 1749, a few days after having given birth to a child.
Her first writing was Institutions dc Physique, a treatise on the philoso-
phy of Leibnitz. She also translated the Principia of Newton into French,
accompanying it with algebraic elucidations.
Madame du Chatelet' s ideas of morality were those of her time. She
was graceful, remarkable for her simplicity of manner, and renowned for
the accuracy of her judgment. Proud of her rank and birth, haughty to
her inferiors, violent and imperious in her temper, she ruled despotically
over her lovers, as she was ruled by her passions.
286
LADY HUNTINGDON.
A. D. 1707-1791.
RELIGIOUS PHILANTHROPIST.
rXOUNTESS SELINA HUNTINGDON, a patron of Calvinistic Metho-
^^ dists in England, was born in 1707, and died June 17, 1791. She was
one of three daughters and co-heirs of Washington Shirley, Earl of
'■^^'^^rs, and at the age of twenty-one was married to Theophilus Hastings,
'^^^ of Huntingdon, a man distinguished for piety. His sudden death in
'''^^^, and also the death of her four children in youth, caused her to
^^^^^me deeply religious.
Ai the time when the founders of Methodism, Wesley and Whitefield,
^'^r^j exciting in England a spirit of more intense devotion than was gener-
^*y prevalent, the Countess of Huntingdon embraced their doctrines with
"^^ whole heart. She inclined to Whitefield' s peculiar doctrines rather than
^^ AVesley's, but she chose herself to become the founder of a sect which
^*^s called ** The Countess of Huntingdon's Connection."
She had the control of a large income during her forty-five years of
^'idowhood, and as her own personal expenses were small, and she was
^sisted by other opulent persons, she supported a college at Trevecca, in
South Wales, for the education of Calvinistic ministers, and built sixty-four
cHapels, the ministers of which she assisted to support. Her largest chapel
*as at Bath, which she freciuently attended. The ccjllege was removed
3lter her death to Cheshunt, Herts, where it still exists, and for the supjx^t
^^ it and also her chapels she left a trust. Not only in tliese ways did she
^<^nt the title of public beivefactor, but she also expended large sums in
private charities. According to the census of 1831, there were 109 chapels
Wonging to the *' Connection," with accommodations for 40,000 hearers.
Udy Huntingdon lived for others, and at her death, which took j)lace
•^'tit a long career, she was mourned by all who knew her. Kven those
^horejjarded her conduct as the result of mistaken enthusiasm, nspected
"^*r lor the noble virtues of her character and her Christian (onduci.
«he Congregational polity prevails among lur societies, .some of which
"^^'^ formally identified themselves with the Congregationalists.
287
MARIA THERBSA.
A. D. 1717-1780.
THE GREATEST OF AUSTRIAN RULERS-
^I^HIS noted woman, archduchess of Austria, queen of Hungary and
® |fe Bohemia, and empress of Germany, born at Vienna, May 13,
17 17, was the eldest daughter of Charles VI. of Austria, emperor
of Germany. In 1724 Charles, by his will, known as the Pragmatic Sanc-
tion, regulated the order of succession in the House of Austria, declaring
that, in default of male issue, his eldest daughter should be heiress of all the
Austrian dominions, and her children after her. The Pragmatic Sanction
was guaranteed by the Diet of the Empire, and by all the German princes,
and by several powers of Europe, but not by the Bourbons. In 1736 she
married Francis of Lorraine, to whom she gave equal share in the govern-
ment upon the death of her father in 1740.
At the time of her accession the monarchy was exhausted, the finances
embarrassed, the people discontented, and the army weak. To add to the
gravity of the situation, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Sardinia, abetted by
France, put forward claims to the whole or to portions of her dominions.
Maria Theresa, however, went immediately to Vienna, and took possession
of Austria. Bohemia, and her other German states. She then repaired to
Presburg, took the oaths to the Constitution of Hungary, and was solemnly
proclaimed queen of that kingdom in 1741. Frederick of Prussia offered
the young queen his friendship on condition of her giving up to him
Silesia, which she resolutely refused, and he then invaded that province.
The Elector of Bavaria, assisted by the French, also invaded Austria, and
pushed his troops as far as Vienna. The queen took refuge in Presburg,
where she convoked the Hungarian Diet ; and appearing in the midst of
them with her infant son in her arms, she made a heart-stirring appeal to
their loyalty. The Hungarian nobles, drawing their swords, unanimously
exclaimed, '* We will die for our queen, Maria Theresa 1 " And they' raised
an army and drove the French and Bavarians out of the hereditary states.
In the meantime, Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, was chosen em-
peror of Germany, under the name of Charles VII. ; and Frederick of
288
MARIA THERESA.
Prussia soon made peace with Maria Theresa, who was obliged to surrender
Silesia to him.
^" ^745 Charles VII. died, and Francis. Maria Theresa's husband, was
eleaed emperor. Three years later the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle termi-
nated the war of the Austrian succession, and there ensued a period of peace.
During this period, Maria Theresa instituted important financial reforms,
^d her utmost to foster agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and
improved and nearly doubled the national revenues, whilst the burdens
were diminished.
In 1756 began the Seven Years' War, between France, Austria, and
Russia on the one side, and Prussia on the other, to confirm Frederick in the
possession of Silesia. This was ended in 1763, leaving Austria and Prussia
*ith the same boundaries as before. On the conclusion of hostilities the
oppress renewed her efforts to promote the national prosperity, ameliorat-
ing the condition of the peasantry, mitigating the penal code, founding
schook, organizing charitable societies, in short, promoting the welfare of
^^ subjects by all the wise arts of peaceful progress.
After the death of her husband, in 1765, the queen mother associated
"^ son Joseph, elected king of the Romans in 1764, with herself in the
government of the hereditary states. She, however, retained the adminis-
tration of the government until her death, November 29, 1780.
l^ersonally, Maria Theresa was a woman of majestic and winning ap-
pearance, and she was animated by truly regal sentiments and an undaunted
^irit; by this rare union of feminine tact with masculine energy and restless
activity, she not only won the affection and even enthusiastic admiration of
her subjects, but she raised Austria from a most wretched condition to a
position of assured power. Although a zealous Roman Catholic, she
maintained the rights of her own crown against the court of Rome, and
endeavored to correct some of the worst abuses of the Church.
Maria Theresa was the mother of sixteen children, all born within
twenty years, ten of whom survived her. Among these, Josej)h II. suc-
ceeded her ; Leo[K)ld. Grand Duke of Tuscany, followed his brother on the
imperial throne as Leopold II. ; Ferdinand became Duke of Modena ; and
Marie Antoinette was married to Louis XVI., of France.
289
CATHARINE II.
A. D. 1789-1796.
EMPRESS OF RUSSIA.
aATHARINE II. was born at Stettin, in Prussian Pomerania, May 2,
1729. Her father, the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, was a Prussian
field marshal, and governor of Stettin. She received the name of
Sophia Augusta ; but the Empress Elizabeth of Russia having selected
her for the wife of her nephew and intended successor, Peter, she passed
from the Lutheran to the Greek Church, and took the name of Catharine
Alexievna.
In 1745 her marriage took place. She soon quarreled with her hus-
band, and both of them lived a life of unrestrained vice. Among his at-
tendants was a Count Soltikoff, with whom her intimacy soon became
scandalous ; and Soltikoff was sent on an embassy abroad. But the young
Polish count, Poniatowski, almost immediately supplied his place. After
the death of the Empress Elizabeth in 1761, Peter III. ascended the Rus-
sian throne ; but the conjugal differences became continually wider.
Catharine was banished to a separate abode ; and the emperor seemed to
entertain the design of divorcing her, declaring her only son, Paul, illegit-
imate, and marrying his mistress, Fllizabeth Woronzofl. The popular
dislike to Peter, however, rapidly increased ; and at length, he being de-
throned by a conspiracy, Catharine was made empress. A few days after-
ward Peter was murdered. What participation his wife had in his murder
has never been well ascertained.
Catharine now exerted herself to please the people, and among other
things, made a great show of regard for the outward forms of the Greek
Church, although her principles were, in reality, those prevalent among
the French philosophers of the eighteenth century. The government of
the country was carried on with great energy, a'nd her reign was .re-
markable for the rapid increase of the dominions and power of Russia.
Not long after her accession to the throne, her influence secured the
election of her former favorite, Stanislaus Poniatowski, to the throne of
Poland.
CATMAKINK II. oF KISSIA.
Rcpr^iduced from a i)«»rtrait b\ K<.^>cl>n; envcravtil !•> Cir.-lim \V.ll"^
CATHARINE II.
In her own empire, however, discontentment was seriously manifested,
the hopes of the disaffected being centered in the young prince Ivan, right-
. iul heir to the throne of Russia, who was forthwith murdered in the castle
of Schliisselburg.
From that time the internal politics of Russia consisted chiefly of court
intrigues for the humiliation of one favorite and the exaltation of another.
The revolt of the Cossacks in 1773, though serious, only ser\'ed to fortify
her throne. The first partition of Poland in 1772, and the Turkish war
»hich terminated in 1774, vastly increased the empire. In 1787 she made
a journey in her southern provinces through flourishing towns, villages, and
fetive scenes ; but the whole was a sham, having been gotten up for the
w^ion by Potemkin to impress Catharine with the prosperity of her em-
P^t. Resuming the policy of expelling the Turks from Kurope, and reign-
^"gat Constantinople, Catharine, in 1783, seized the Crimea, and annexed
rt to her empire. In 1787 the Porte declared war against her and hostili-
^werc continued till 1792. She indemnified herself by sharing in the
^lismemberment of Poland, which kingdom became extinct in 1795 ; and
*as on the i)oint of turning her arms against republican France, when she
rfi«l of apoplexy, November 9, 1796.
To :ill her lovers Catharine was munificent, not only during their season
of favor, but after their dismissal, loading them with presents and pensions
to such an extent, that altogether they arc estimated to have cost Russia
about /' 20.000,000. In the capital, at her court, and in her own circle,
there reigned the most systematic immorality, which she encouraged by her
example in utter disregard of virtuous restraint.
Though as a woman the licentiousness of her character is inexcusable,
yet as a sovereign Catharine II. is well entitled to the appellation of Great.
After Peter I., she was the chief regenerator of Russia, hut with a more en-
Iight<ne<I mind and under more favorable circumstances. She established
sch<'Kj|>, ameliorated the condition of the serfs, promoted conmierce, founded
t<^F«nb. arsenals, banks, and manufactories, and encouragetl art and litera-
ture. She corresjK)nded with the learned men in all countries, and wrote
h#-rself Instructions for a Code 0/ LmcSy besides several dramatic pieces,
and Moral Tales for her grandchildren.
293
MADAME DE LA ROCHE.
A. n. 1731-1807.
GERMAN AUTHORESS.
MARIE SOPHIE DE LA ROCHE, a talented German authoress,
was the daughter of Herr Von Gutcrman, a very learned physician.
She was born December 6, 1731, at Kaufbenrcn, and, as she grew
up, was educated with great care. When she was only iiivc years old, it is
said she had read the Bible through. Von (>utcrnian removed to Augsburg
when his daughter was sixteen, where he was appointed town physician,
and dean of the medical faculty. Here the daughter had new opportunities
for mental cultivation, and received special assistance from Dr. Biancani, of
Bologna, physician to the Prime Bishop of Augsburg. Dr. Biancani
became very much attached to his pupil and wished to marry her, but the
father of Sophie opj)Osed the match.
P'rom this time she devoted herself to reading and study and shortly
after took up her residence at Riberach in the house of a relative, Wieland
by name. Here Soj^hie became acquainted witli young Wieland, who drew
her attention to (ierman literature, and throughout her life inspired her to
literary effort. A strong attachment sprang up between them, and they
became engaged ; but chiring Wieland' s ])rolonged absence in Switzerland,
they were estranged, and when, in 1760, he returned to Riberach, he found
Sophie the wife of M. de la Roche, counselor of state in Maine, and super-
intendent of the estates of Count Stadion. The friendship of Wieland,
however, was resumed and continued uninterrupted till their death, a period
of more than fifty years. M. de la Roche (.lied in 17S9, while his wife sur-
vived until 1.S07.
Madame de la Roche wrote a number of works which showed her to be
a woman of intellect, knowledge, and experience. In writing, however, she
succeeded best in romances, in which she exhibited uinisn;il ]K)wers of im-
agination and knowledge <»f the human heart. Her principal works are,
History of the iMcly of Stcniburir, to which Witland wrote a preface ;
Pomona, My \\ntin\r Desk, L< iters on M.in/irinf, Apparitions on Lake
Oneida, Love Cottages ^ and J/e/usina's Summer A'ig/it.
294
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
A. D. 173S-1802.
WIFE OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON.
<S^^llh-¥»
MARTHA WASHINGTON was born in the county of New Kent, Vir-
ginia, in May, 1732. Her maiden name was Martha Dandridge, and,
at the age of seventeen, she married Col. Daniel Parke Curtis, of the
White House, county of New Kent. By this union she had four children :
a daughter who died in infancy, a son named Daniel, whose early death is
supposed to have hastened his father's ; Martha, who arrived at woman-
hood, and died in 1770 ; and John, who perished in the service of his coun-
tr>*, at the siege of York town, aged twenty-seven.
Mrs. Curtis was left a young and very wealthy widow, and managed the
extensive landed and pecuniary interests of the estate with surprising ability.
In 1759 she was married to George Washington, then a colonel in the
colonial service, and soon after they removed permanently to Mount Ver-
non, on the Potomac. When her husband became commander-in-chief of
the colonial armies, Mrs. Washington, accompanied him to Boston, and
witnessed its siege and evacuation.
After General Washington's election to the presidency of the United
States, in 1787, Mrs. Washington ptTformed the duties l:)clonging to the
^•fe of a man in that high station, with dignity and case. On the retire-
nicnt of President Washington, she still continued her unbounded hospi-
t^'ty. The death of her venerated husband, which occurred December
M' '799, ^^«^^ «^ shock from which she never recoxered, though she bore
t"C heavy s« )rrow with the most exemplary resignation. She survived her
nusliand a little over two years, dying at Mount Wrnon.
*n person Mrs. Washington was well formed, thougli somewhat below
•niudU' height. A portrait, made pre\ious to her marri;ige, shows that she
^M have l>een very handsome in her youth ; whicli comeliness of counte-
^^Ce. as well as a dignified and graceful manner, she retained during life
*^ the home she was the presiding genius that kept action and order in
P^ect harmony — a wife in whom the heart of her husband could safely
tnist
295
CHARLOTTB CORDAY.
A. D. 1768-1798.
FRENCH HEROINE AND MARTYR.
4-^OH-^-
MARIANE CHARLOTTE CORDAY D'ARMANS, a French
heroine, was born at St. Saturnin des Lignerets, in the department
of Orne, July 28, 1768, and guillotined at Paris, July 17, 1793.
Her father was a poor Norman nobleman of literary tastes, and author of
works of a republican tendency. Charlotte's mother died during her early
youth ; her two brothers entered the army ; one of her sisters died
young, and she and her remaining sister were placed by their father in
a convent at Caen. There she became a favorite with the abbess and her
assistant, who occasionally gave parties to their intimate friends, to which
Charlotte was admitted. Among the visitors was M. de Belzunce, a young
cavalry officer, between whom and Charlotte a tender feeling sprang up.
Charlotte was intellectual, vehement, and enthusiastic ; she devoured
Rousseau's Heioise, sympathized with the heroes of antiquity, and enter-
tained the most exalted ideas of the duties of patriotism. An event which
made a deep impression on her mind was the assassination of the young
officer she loved by a mob at Caen, and she vowed revenge against those
whom she conceived to have instigated the murder.
After the revolution had closed the doors of the convent, Charlotte re-
moved to the house of her aunt, an old royalist lady. Many Girondists had
fled to Caen, among others Barbaroux, and Charlotte found a pretext for
calling upon him. The conversation chiefly turned upon the tragic fate of
the Girondists, upon Madame Roland, and upon Marat, for whom she had
long felt a horror. One morning her aunt found a Bible lying open upon
her bed, and the following lines, **The Lord hath gifted Judith with a
special beauty and fairness," were underlined. On another occasion she
found her weeping bitterly, and, on questioning her about her tears, Char-
lotte replied : " They flow for the misfortunes of my country."
On the morning of July 9, 1793, she suddenly left the house of her
aunt, on a pretext of a journey to England. On the eleventh she was in
Paris. She took a room in the Hotel de la Providence, not far from
296
CHARLOTTE CORDAY.
Marat's dwelling. For two days her mind was undecidod as to whether
Marat or Robespierre should fall, when Marat's journal, L ami du peuple ,
in which he said that two hundred thousand more heads must be lopped off
in order to secure the success of the revolution, fixed her determination.
She addressed a letter to Marat soliciting an audience, in order to acquaint
him with the plots of the Girondists at Caen. No answer came, and on
the morning of July 13, after having purchased a knife at the Palais Royal,
Charlotte called upon Marat. She was refused admittance. She wrote a
second note, and called again at half- past seven the same evening. The
porter seeing her pass by his lodge without making any inquiry, called her
back. But Charlotte passed on and ascended the staircase. Marat's mis-
tress, Albertine, opened the door, and on beholding again the same young
voman who had called during the morning, rudely refused to admit her ;
Charlotte insisted ; the sound of their voices reached Marat, who con-
sented to see her. Charlotte was ushered through two other rooms to a
nanow closet, where Marat was just taking a bath. He listened to her re-
port of the proceedings of the Girondists, and, taking down their names, re-
Diarked with a smile that "within a week they will all go to the guillotine."
"These words sealed his fate," said Charlotte afterward. Drawing from
feieath the handkerchief which covered her bosom the knife she had con-
cealed there, she plunged it to the hilt in Marat's heart. He gave a loud
en* and sank back dead.
The news of the murder soon spread. The room became crowded with
people, and as they gazed upon the beautiful girl, who looked serenely and
calmly upon the general confusion, they could hardly believe that she was
^assassin. She was transferred to the nearest prison, the Abbaye.
Her trial took place on the morning of July 17 ; she was sentenced to
^eath, and guillotined the evening of the same day. During her trial and
Juring the execution her courage did not forsake her for a moment. She
^evlared that her project had been formeil when the Robespierre party had
pronounced the doom of the Girondists, and that she had killed one man
'border to save a hundred thousand.
When Vergniaud was informed of Charlotte's death, he exclaimed :
" She has killed us, but she teaches us how to die.
297
NIADAME DB STAEL.
A. D. 1766-1817.
AN ILLUSTRIOUS FRENCH WOMAN.
•^e^z-H-^roc.
)NNE LOULSE GERMAINE DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN was born
at Paris, April 22, 1766. She was the daughter of Jacques Necker,
the famous finance minister of Louis XVL She was an extraor-
dinarily precocious child, figured at receptions at eleven, and grew up in an
atmosphere of admiration. The attention she received in her mother's
brilliant salon developed in her the intellectual curiosity and scientific spirit
of the men who frequented it.
At the age of twenty, through the interposition of Marie Antoinette, a
marriage was brought about between her and the Baron de Stael-Holstein,
then Swedish aml^assador at the court of France. Her marriage was not
happy, and she was later separated from her husband, and mainly lived
apart from him. She bore him two sons and a daughter, and was present
at his bedside when he died in 1802.
Neither the disposition nor the situation of Madame de Stael would
permit her to remain indifferent to the general agitation which prevailed in
France. P^nthusiastic in her love of liberty, she gave all the weight of her
influence to the cause. Her salon was the gathering place of ftie admirers
of the English constitution. In 1792 she fled from the growing violence of
riot and murder, then such a horrible attribute of the revolution in Paris,
and took refuge with her father at Coppet, near Geneva, and later fled to
England.
Three years later she returned to Paris and sought to re-establish her
salon. In the same year she fell under the suspicion of the Director}%
and withdrew again to Coppet, but returned once more in 1797, and her
salon attained a new brilliancy and power.
Among its assiduous visitors were Madame Recamier, Madame de
Beaumont, C. Jordan, Fauriel, and especially Benjamin Constant, with whom
she fell in love, and from whose capricious and unhappy character she had
much to suffer.
298
MADAMK DK STALL.
MADAME DE STAEL.
.©♦o.
RBprnducBd frDm the portrait "by J, Cham-
pagna, a Flainlsh painter. Champagna was a
pupil Df Philippe ChampagnB, whom ha assisted
in many works in Paris. His talent attracted the
attention of King Louis XIV./whD emplDyed
him in decorative painting at the Palace ai Ver-
sallles.
e^jV^
MADAME DE STA£L.
Her salon was decidedly hostile to Napoleon, who, in October, 1803,
sent her away from Paris. After this interdict, she traveled in Germany
and Italy, and in 1805 established herself again in Coppet, where her old
friends and many new ones flocked about her, and where she held a kind
of intellectual court. She traveled again in (icrmany in 1807, and upon
her return announced her religious conversion.
The appearance of her book on Germany was the signal for still severer
measures by Napoleon. The French edition was destroyed, and she was
ordered to retire to Coppet, where she was kept under surveillance, a
\'irtiial prisoner, and forbidden to receive her friends. She escaped in
1812 and took refuge successively in St. Petersburg, Sweden, and Eng-
land. On the fall of Napoleon she returned to Paris in 181 5, but she was
disappointed at the tendencies of the restored monarchy.
She received from the government two millions of francs, the sum which
h«" father had left in the royal treasury : and, surrounded by a happy circle
of congenial minds, she remained in the capital until her death in July, 1817.
'ni8ii sfie had secretly married Albert de Rocca, an officer but twenty-
tiree years old, to whom she bore a son.
Though her conspicuous influence upon her contemporaries was wielded
largely by personal contact, and the brilliancy of her improvisation in the
excitement of conversation, yet her books are the most important of the
pctet-revolutionary period, and furnished a great stimulus to the new cur-
rents of French literature that were preparing romanticism. Her works are
numerous, the most noted of which arc, Corin?u\ Dtlphine, Germany, Ten
Years of Exile, and Considerations on the French Revolution
The books of Madame de Stael are very little read, and occupy a singu-
lar position in French literature. They are seen to be in large part merely
clever reflections of other people's views, or views current at the time, and
the famous ** ideas" turn out to be chiefly the ideas of the hooks or the
men with whom she was from time to time in contact. Her faults are
great ; her style is of a particular age, not for all time ; her ideas are
ni«>stly second hand and frequently superficial. Nevertheless, nothing
save a very great talent could have shown itself so receptive of its environ-
ment.
301
ABIOAIL ADAMS.
A. D. 1744-1818.
WIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS.
S;*
aBIGAIL ADAMS, wife of John Adams, second president of the
United States, was the daughter of Rev. William Smith, minister of
a Congregational church, at Weymouth, Massachusetts, and of
Elizabeth Quincy. She was born November 22, 1744, and in October,
1767, married John Adams, then a lawyer residing at Weymouth.
Mr. Adams was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the court of Great
Britain, and in 1784 Mrs. Adams sailed from Boston to join him. She
returned in 1788, having passed one year in France and three in England.
On the appointment of her husband to the vice-presidency in 1789, she
resided in Philadelphia, then the seat of government, and also during his
term as president. After the defeat of Mr. Adams in 1800 they retired to
Quincy, Mass., where Mrs. Adams died, October 28, 181 8.
Mrs. Adams' letters to her son, John Quincy Adams, were characteris-
tic and much admired. She was a woman of true greatness and elevation
of mind, and, whether in public or private life, always preserved the same
dignified and tranquil demeanor. As the mistress of a household, she
united the prudence of a rigid economist with the generous spirit of a lib-
eral hospitality ; faithful and affectionate in her friendships, bountiful to the
poor, kind and courteous to her dependents, cheerful and charitable in the
intercourse of social life with her acquaintances, she lived in the habitual
practice of benevolence, and sincere, unaffected piety. In her family rela-
tions, few women have left a pattern more worthy of imitation by their sex.
Her letters have been collected and were published some years since.
Nladame de iStael continued.
Take away her assiduous frequentation of society, from the later philo-
sophical coteries to the age of Byron — take away the influence of Constant
and Schlegel and her other literary friends — and probably little of her
will remain.
302
NIARIE ANTOINETTE.
A. D. 1756-1793.
ILL FATED QUEEN OF FRANCE.
C+4J -
MARIE ANTOINETTE jOSEPHE JEANNE DE LORRAINE,
archduchess of Austria and queen of France, was the fifth daugh-
ter of Maria Theresa and Francis I. She was born at Vienna,
November 2, 1755, was carefully educated, and possessed an uncommon
share of grace and beauty. Her hand was demanded by Louis XIV". , for
his grandson, the dauphin, afterward Louis XVI., to whom she was mar-
ried in 1770, before she had attained her fifteenth year.
Her ])osition at the French court was difficult from the very first, and it
soon became dangerous. There was a difference of character between her
ind the people among whom she had come to live which proved fatal in
the end. Her morals were perfectly pure and her heart full of noble and
generous instincts. During the first years of her residence in France the
queen was the idol of the people. Four years from this period all was
ehanged. Circumstances remote in their origin had brought about in
France a state of feeling fast ripening to a fearful issue.
The queen could no longer do with inij)unity what had been done by
her prwUcessors. The extravagance and thoughtlessness of youth, and
a nejjlcct of the strict formality of court etiquette, injured her reputation.
She became a mark of censure, and finally an object of hatred to the
people, who accused her of the most imj^robable crimes. Accused of
"^g an Austrian at heart, and an enemy to I^ ranee, e\ ery evil in the
*taie w;is now attributed to her, and the Parisians soon exhibited their
hatred in acts of open violence.
In OctolKT. 1789, the populace proceeded with rancor to Versailles,
i»roke into the castle, murdered several of the bodyguard, and forced
themstlvt-s into the queen's apartments. When (juestioned by the officers
'•' justice as to what she had seen on that memorable day, she replied, *' I
^^eseen all. I have heard all, I have forgotten all."
•%• accompanied the king in his flight to \'arcnnes, in 1791, and
tndured with him, with unexampled fortitude and magnanimity, the in-
303
MARIE ANTOINETTE.
suits which now followed in quick succession. In April, 1792, she accom-
panied the king from the Tuileries, where they had been for some time
detained close prisoners, to the Legislative Assembly, where she was ar-
raigned. Transferred to the Temple, she endured, with the members of
the royal family, every variety of privation and indignity. On January 21,
1793, the king perished on the scaffold ; her son was forcibly torn from
her, and she was removed to the Conciergerie to await her trial in a damp
and squalid cell. On the 14th of October she appeared before the revolu-
tionary tribunal.
During the trial, which lasted seventy-three hours, Marie Antoinette
preserved all her dignity and composure. Her replies to the infamous
charges which were preferred against her were simple, noble, and laconic.
When all the accusations had been heard, she was asked if she had any-
thing to say. She replied, " I was a queen, and you took away my crown ;
a wife, and you killed my husband ; a mother, and you deprived me of my
children. My blood alone remains : take it, but do not make me suffer
long.''
At four o'clock on the morning of the i6th she was condemned
to death by a unanimous vote. She heard her sentence with admirable
dignity and self-possession. At half-past twelve on the same day she
ascended the scaffold. Scarcely any traces remained of the dazzling loveli-
ness which had once charmed all hearts ; her hair had long since become
blanched with grief, and her eyes were almost sightless from continued
weeping. She knelt and prayed for a few moments in a low tone, then rose
and calmly delivered herself to the executioner. Thus perished, in her
thirty-seventh year, the daughter of the heroic Maria Theresa, a victim to
the circumstances of birth and position.
No fouler crime ever stained the annals of savage life than the murder
of this unfortunate queen, by a people calling themselves the most civilized
nation in the world.
Marie Antoinette had four children : a daughter, who died in infancy :
the dauphin, who died in 1789 ; the young Louis, who perished in the
Temple in 1795 ; and Marie Theresa Charlotte, who became the wife of th«
eldest son of Charles X.
804
/
MADAM B ROLAND.
A. D. 1754-1703.
MARTYR OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
MARIE JEANNE ROLAND, one of the most conspicuous martyrs
of the French revolution, was born at Paris, March i8, 1754, the
daughter of an engraver, who had ruined himself by unlucky
speculation. From the first an eager and imaginative child, she read
ivcr>'thing, even heraldry, and Plutarch made the young idealist a repub-
lican for life. At eleven she went, for a year, into a convent to prei)are for
her first communion, next passed a year with her grandmother, and re-
turned to her father's house, where she read Buffon, Bossuet, and Helve-
tius, and at length found her gospel in the writings of Rousseau.
After the death of her admirable mother, in 1775, the girl, solitary and
poor, untouched in heart by her many admirers, and cold toward the father
through his misconduct, at length, in February, 1780, married M. Roland,
a manufacturer of Lyons. He was r)ver forty, thin, yellowish, careless in
dress, abrupt and austere in manners, and unyielding in his virtues, a man
whom few would have thought likely to fascinate a young and beautiful
woman. InherenthusLism she overrated his (lualities : he j>roved a selfish.
t-xacting husband ; but she buried the latent passions of her heart, and for
itn years made herself an admirable wife and mother, with perfect domestic
Mmplicity. Her only child, a daughter, Kudora, was born at Amiens.
The opening of the French revolution drew Ma(Uune Roland from the
Mirement of private life. She accompanied her husband, in 1791, to
^»ris, whither he had been sent by the city of Lyons to rrprtsent it in the
^tates-GcneraL Her beauty, enthusiasm, and elo(iuence soon exercised a
^^•nderful fascination over her husband's friends, and addrd a charm to
l*^triotism that was irresistible. All the famous and ill-fated lca(Ur>,
^•"issot, Petion, Buzot, and at first e\en Robespierre and Danton, met con-
^*^{\y at her house, and she was a deeply interested observer of all that
1^5^. She had little faith in constitutional monarchy ; her aspirations
^trefor a republic, pure, free, and glorious as her ideal.
In March, 1792, Roland became minister of the interior, and in her new
307
MADAME ROLAND.
and elevated position Madame Roland influenced not only her husband but
the entire Girondist party. Dismissed from his post in consequence of his
celebrated letter of remonstrance to the king — which letter was, in fact,
written by his wife — Roland, upon the downfall of the monarchy, was re-
called to the ministry.
This triumph was but short lived. The power which had been set in
motion could not be arrested in its fearful course, and the Girondist party
fell before the influence of their bloodthirsty opponents. Protesting against
the reign of terror, they fell its victims. Both she and her husband
drew down upon themselves the hatred of Marat and Danton, and their
lives were soon openly threatened. Roland escaped ; but Madame Ro-
land was arrested, and thrown into prison. Here, during a confinement
of several months, she prepared her memoirs, which have been given to
the world.
On November i, 1793, she was removed to the Conciergerie, and her
trial, as a Girondist, commenced. She was condemned to death, and
November 8, dressed all in white, her long, black hair hanging down to
the girdle, she ascended the fatal cart. Carried with her to the guillotine
was a trembling printer of assignats whom she asked Samson to take first
to save him the horror of seeing her head fall. ** You cannot,** said she,
* * refuse the last request of a woman. ' '
It is usually told how, on the point of entering the awful shadows of
eternity, she asked for pen and paper to write down the strange thoughts
that were rising within her, but Sainte-Beuve thinks it impossible, puerile,
untrue to the nature of the heroine, as well as unauthenticated by good
contemporary evidence. As she looked up at the statue of Liberty, she
exclaimed, " Oh Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name!"
She died at the age of thirty-nine.
She had often said her husband would not long survive her. Her
prediction was fulfilled. A week later, the body of Roland was found
seated beneath a tree, on the road to Rouen, stabbed to the heart. A
paper affixed to his breast bore these words : * * From the moment when I
learned that they had murdered my wife I would no longer remain in a
world stained with her enemies."
308
i
QUEEN LOUISE.
A. D. 1776-1810.
BEAUTIFUL AND NOBLE GERMAN PRINCESS.
T pOUISE, Queen of Prussia, was born March lo, 1776, in Hanover,
J^^ where her father, Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was com-
mandant. During the period of the revolutionary wars, she lived
for some time with her sister Charlotte, the wife of Duke Frederick of Saxe-
Hildburghausen. In 1793 she met at Frankfort the crown prince of
Prussia, afterward King Frederick William IIL, who was so fascinated by
her beauty, and by the nobleness of her character, that he asked her to
become his wife. On April 24, of the same year, they were married.
As queen of Prussia she commanded universal respect and affection, and
nothing in Prussian history is more pathetic than the patience and dignity
with which she bore the sufferings inflicted on her and her family during the
war between Prussia and France. After the battle of Jena she went with
her husband to Konigsberg, and when the battles of Fylau and Friedland
had placed Prussia absolutely at the mercy of France, she made a personal
appeal to Napoleon at his headquarters in Tilsit, but without success.
Early in 1808 she accompanied the King from Memcl to Konigsberg,
whence, toward the end of the year, she visited St. Petersburg, returning
to Berlin on December 23, 1809. On July 19, 1810, she died in her hus-
band's arms, while visiting her father in Strelitz.
During the war Napoleon, with incredible brutality, attempted to
<l«troy the queen's reputation, but the only effect of his charges in IVussia
*as to make her more deeply beloved.
The Prussian Order of I.oiiise, the Louise School for girls, and the
^ise Governc^sses' Seminary were instituted in her honor. There is a
'^^lutifiil monument and portrait statue of her by Ranch in the mausoleum
't Chariot tenburg.
yueen Louise was not only characterized by great personal beauty
uniied with dignity and grace of manner, but with much gentleness of
character and active benevolence. Her visits of charity were extended to
nuny homes of poverty and suffering.
309
KLIZABETH HAMILTON.
A. D. 17R8-1816.
IRISH AUTHORESS AND EDUCATOR.
ELIZABETH HAMILTON was born in Belfast in 1758, and died in
Harrovvgate, England, July 25, 18 16. Her father was a merchant,
of a Scc)ttish family, and died early, leaving a widow and three
children. The latter were educated and brought up by relatives.
A taste for literature soon appeared in Elizabeth. Wallace was the first
hero of her studies ; but meeting with Ogilvie's translation of the Iliad, she
idolized Achilles and dreamed of Hector. She had opportunities of visit-
ing Edinburgh and Glasgow, after which she carried on a learned cor-
respondence with Dr. Moyce, a philosophical lecturer. She wrote also
many copies of verses — that ordinary outlet for the warm feelings and
romantic sensibilities of youth.
After the death of her brother, in 1792, the literary career of Elizabeth
Hamilton properly commenced. Her first work was The Letters of a
Hindoo Rajah, published in 1796. The success of this work decided her
to pursue the vocation of authorship. She wrote successively, Memoirs
of Modern Philosophers, Letters on Edneation, Life of Agrippina, and
Letters to the Daughters of Noblemen. This latter was published in the
year 1806. Soon afterwards Miss Hamilton became an active promoter of
the '* House of Industry " at Edinburgh, an establishment for the education
of females of the lowest class. For the benefit of these young persons she
composed a little book, lixereises in Religions h'noicledge, which was pub-
lished in 1809. Her other works include The Cottagers of (ilenburnie,
Jissays on the Human Mind, and Hints to Patrons and Direetors of Sehools.
Elizabeth Hamilton has shown in all her works great power of analysis,
a firm grasp of philosophy, and singular adeptnt^s as an expositor of
educational theory. But more important still is the influence of her writ-
ings in awakening the attention of mothers, and directing their iiujuiries
rightly in the observation of what passes in the minds of their children,
to their duties as mothers, and to their business as preceptors of youth.
Miss Hamilton died after a protracted illness on July 25, 18 16.
310
JOSEPH INK.
A. D. 1763-1814.
WIFE OF NAPOLEON AND EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.
Tk yTARIE JOSEPH ROSE TASCHER DE LA PAGERIE, empress
IVJL of the French, first wife of Napoleon L, was born at Trois Ilets,
near St. Pierre, Martinique, June 24, 1763, and died at Malmaison,
near Paris, May 29, 18 14. Her father, whose family had emigrated from
the \ icinity of Blois, France, held the office of captain of the port at St.
Pierre.
She received the \ery imperfect education that was then imparted to
young ladies in the French colonies, but her native grace and kindness of
heart endeared her to all with whom she became accjuainted. When about
fifteen years of age she was sent to F'rance, and one year later married
Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, like herself a native of Martinique,
and then a major in an infantry regiment. By this union, which was far
from happy, she had a son, Eugene, afterward prince, and a daughter,
Hortense, who became queen of Holland by her marriage with Louis Bona-
parte, and was the mother of Napoleon III.
Viscount de Beauharnais, although he had been one of the promoters of
the revolution in the constituent assembly, and had faithfully ser\'ed his
country in arms, was arrested upon suspicion during the Reign of Terror,
and sent to the scafTold, leaving Josephine in distress. Her efforts to procure
tHe release of her husband had caused her own imprisonment ; and her two
children were reduced to such extremities that Eugene entered a carpenter's
^hop as an apprentice.
At a reception she met Bonaparte, then an obscure officer. He fell
^'^perately in love with her, although he was six years her junior, and
^^rried her March 9, 1796. Twelve days later he was apj)ointe(l to the
^fe command of the French army in Italy. She accompanied him in his
'^^ian campaign, and exercised a great influence in restraining him from
^^Hasures <A violence and severity. She shared all the honors that were
•stowed upon her husband, and was with great difficulty prevented from
3ccomj>anying him to Eg\'pt.
311
JOSEPHINE.
During their separation and after his return, at Malmaison, and after-
ward at the Luxembourg and the Tuileries, she attracted round her the
most brilliant society of France, and contributed not a little to the establish-
ment of her husband's power. She was solemnly crowned in Paris, Decem-
ber 2, 1804, but her happiness was soon marred by sad forebodings ; she
had no children by her imperial husband, and in the eyes of this great poli-
tician a direct heir was essential to the preservation of his power. After
many struggles between his love and his ambition, Napoleon, partly by
entreaties, partly by using his sovereign authority, prevailed upon his wife
to consent to a divorce. The marriage relation was accordingly dissolved
by law on December 16, 1809.
Subsequent evidences of national sympathy for the fallen empress
showed that she was far from having lost anything of her power over the
French people. Her enthusiastic attachment for Napoleon remained unim-
paired ; and she would have been ready to follow him in his exile, after his
fall, but their respective situations did not allow such a step. The esteem
in which she was held by the allied sovereigns protected her during the
disasters of 18 14, and she was several times visited at Malmaison by the
Emperor Alexander of Russia, and the King of Prussia. She lived near
Evreux, and died at Malmaison, May 29, 18 14. Her body was interred in
the church of Rucl, where, seven years after, a monument was erected in
her honor.
Josephine was handsome ; her figure was majestic and elegant ; but her
charms were her grace and goodness of heart. She has been called Napo-
leon's "star." His fortunes, it is said, arose with her, and waned when
their connection ceased. The English, when they paint the Empress
Josephine, in their hatred of Napoleon, always depict her in the most glow-
ing colors. To exalt Napoleon's repudiated wife is to censure him. But
we, who are less liable to prejudice, are able to estimate her character more
impartially and to bestow praise where it belongs.
If Josephine had been as eminent for high, womanly virtues as Napo-
leon was for exalted genius ; if she had been in truth Napoleon's **star,"
her fate might have been a different one.
312
DANTE AND BEATRICE.
Etched and repraducBd from a painting by
Henry Holiday, an English painter, sculptor, and
contributor to the Royal JLcademy. This cbIb-
bratad picture mjbs painted in IBBS and exhibited
in the GrDSveiiDr G-allery, LcndDii.
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THE PERIOD
OK THE
RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOW^INO.
f |\ HE revolutions which took place during the sixteenth century in the
-L condition of woman were not less important than those produced
in Church and State, in religion, in the arts and sciences, in
aculemical institutions, in commerce and manufactures, in the sentiments
and manners of the most celebrated nations, in the mutual
* * **" relations of the countries of Europe, and in the situation of
Cctttwrjr
the latter with regard to the other divisions of the globe.
These changes must be contemplated with due regard to the conditions
already referred to as characteristic of the preceding centuries.
Among nations of different origin, the condition of woman depends,
principally, on the natural qualities of the heart and mind, l)y which each
of them is distinguished. On the contrary, among nations of the same
origin, such as the Germans, and all those that were either descended from,
or conquered by, the Germans, that state of the women is determined by the
particular constitutions, customs, manners, and refinement of each nation,
and also by the situation, power, and disposition of their sovereigns. As a
great change took place in all these points, among the European nations,
during the period under discussion, so the condition of the sex underwent
an equal revolution with the causes l)y which it is governed.
It was a rough world in which women found themselves at liberty to
ome and go, to taste new pleasures, enjoy fresh luxuries, hear new
opinions, and think new thoughts. Hut at least it was a world of action,
of striving, of pushing forward. Despotic as was the throne, as opposed
to feudal rule, oppressi\ e as was the new land-owning class, a freer spirit
])revailed. Social changes worked gradually and the germs of later
ni«)<lem intellectual activity began their growth.
The fact is am[)ly borne out in history, that in no Euro-
*"* pean nation, in which the arts and sciences flourished, were
thev wholly monopolized by the stronger sex. But during the era of the
Rf-naissance they took a larger share in both ; the greater number, in
315
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
order to cultivate the qualities of the heart and understanding, and to fit
themselves for the performance of new social duties ; but many with a view
to exalt themselves above the level of their sex, and to vie with the most
industrious and the most celebrated men in the career of genius and reputa-
tion.
The lively enthusiasm for the ancient languages and monuments, and
for the restoration of all the arts and sciences, which was excited in the
fourteenth and continued during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was
caught up by certain happily organized persons, and became a part of the
spirit of the times. Women applied themselves to the study of the Greek
and Latin and even of the Oriental languages, and acquired, or at least
endeavored to acquire, glory by the fruits of their industry and genius ;
several distinguished themselves as public orators, or as teachers of the
languages and sciences.
It may be regarded as a peculiar characteristic of the fifteenth and still
more of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, that the
enthusiasm for the sciences and the learned languages among
Sill y o ^omen of the higher ranks was strongest and most general ;
that at the very time when the majority of princes and nobles
despised men of learning as clerks, and regarded the sciences as degrading
to their dignity, women of the highest distinction patronized literature and
the arts with the most lively interest ; that queens and princesses so far
from being ashamed, thought it an honor to be poetesses and writers ; and
that those of the female sex who had received no instruction in the learned
languages and the scholastic sciences, at least made themselves mistresses
of the best works of modern nations, studied with the utmost assiduity to
speak and write their mother tongue with elegance and precision, and to
form correct opinions on the productions of wit and taste, as well as on
men and things.
The country in which the classic languages were first revived was the
portion of the European continent in which ladies of distinc-
Spread of ^j^^^ ^^.^^ aspired to the newly discovered treasures of ancient
I^eamlns:
wisdom. The examples of the Italian women soon excited
the emulation of their fair and enlightened sisters in France, England, Spain,
316
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
and Germany. To the honor of the P'rench women, it must be said, that.
in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, they distinguished
themselves above all the olliers by their accomplishments in general, and
their literary talents in particular, and in consequence they justly lK»came
the patterns of their sex throughout all Kurope.
Next to the French women, those of England applied themselves with
the greatest zeal to the study of the ancient languages and of the sciences.
The latter, however, possessed an undeniable superiority over
ev va ti^eir continental neiehlx)rs in one important particular, that
In Bnffland ^ . .
is to say, they conferred much greater honor on their erudi-
tion l)y irreproachable manners than the women of Francr.
There was activity in all departments of thought. The study of poetry,
of theology, of the classics, went on apace. The printing press was letting
loose fi(K)ds of knowledge. The tide swept the women of the nobility along
in its course, as it did those of France. They stand out prominently among
the ranks of scholars. In place of the domestic arts, they are found im-
mersed in classics, divinity, and philosophy.
Education was not conducted on the easy, pleasant lines of our own
day. Knowledge was hard to obtain. It was locked up out of reach of
the indolent, in languages to which there were none of the modern keys.
Literature was the great study, and familiarity with (ireek and Latin essen-
tial. The tree of science had only just begun to grow, and was sorely iK-set
by the brambles of superstition and mysticism. The arts in England cT>uld
scarcely Ik' said to exist. History was in the form »>f chronicles and
romances.
And yet, says a competent authority, "No age was so productive of
learned women as the sixteenth century. Learning was so very mo<lish
that the fair sex seemed to belie\e that dreek and Latin added to their
charms, and that Plato and Aristotle untranslated were frequent ornaments
of their closets. " Certainly Enj^lantl can show a roll during that periiHJ,
which is in striking contrast to the records of the prece<ling and succeeil-
ing centuries.
Queen Catharine, tht- last wife (»t Henry VI 11., was the translator
ot a notable literary work. She was excelled by the <jueens Nhiry and
317 •
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
Elizabeth, both of whom were likewise authors. The former wrote
Latin epistles with elegance, and the latter was in the habit
Bioiaiiie ^j returning extemporary answers in the same languajje to
Polish ambassadors.
The beautiful, virtuous, heroic, and unfortunate Lady Jane Cirey, who
was in ever>' respect worthy the first throne in the world, is justly styled by
Hume, a prodigy in literature. Never was a woman, and ver}' seldom a
person of the other sex, attached to learning for its own sake, or on account
of the pleasure and advantage which it afforded to her understanding and
her heart, as Lady Jane (irey, who ascended the scaffold with greater reso-
lution than the throne, and who consoled her sister in the same language in
which Plato wrote on the immortality of the soul. Not only the queens,
but, as Hume informs us, "even the ladies of the court valued themselves
on their knowledge. Lady Burleigh, Lady Bacon, and their two sisters,
were mistresst=^ of the ancient as well as modern languages ; and placed
more pride in their i-rudition, than in their rank and (juality."
The house of Sir Thomas More was truly the habitatic^n o^ the Musi s.
His three daughters, but especially Margaret, who afterward married Mr.
Roper, wrote, even in their childhood, Latin letters of which veterans in
literature would have no occasion to feel ashamed. It was perhaps these
three daughters who honored the memory of (Jueen Margaret <»f Navarre in
Latin poems of their own composition.
After the sixteenth century, the lamp of learning in Kngland flickered a
good de.al. The air was very unsteady, and winds came blowing from all
quarters. The civil war, the austerity of the Puritans, the
••^•■****"*'* license of the Rovalists, were not favorable to the arts of
Ccntory
peace, and when political passions were dividing the country
it was no time for ])oring over books and holding commune with phiIoM>-
phers and poets. The fault of the seventeenth century was its lack «»f
earnestness alM)Ut intellectual matters. It combined all the faults of all tlur
ages — laxity of morals, indifference to high aims, combined with religious
fanaticism and a lack of appreciation of knt)wle(lj4e and learning. Ac-
complishments were sought after rather than solid acquirements. There
was a leaning to the lighter pursuits, — music, dancing, needlework, and art.
318
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
It is in this century that the history of the fine arts, as far as women are
concerned, really begins. About the middle of the century, too, women
first began to appear upon the stage. It was an unfortunate moment for
the introduction of actresses, and their presence gave rise to many scandals ;
and this opprobrium has never left it.
The eighteenth century' stands out with a curious distinct individuality.
The contest between the moralist and the sensualist had spent itself, and
England ^or the first time in English history we come upon a period
Elsmeentii ^^^^^ distinctive characteristic was conventionality . Wo-
centnry ^len in everyday life felt the spell of this goddess less than
did the great ladies. Over the fashionable world she reigned supreme ;
but common women, while they admired, and, as far as possible, imitated
the ways of their social superiors, showed themselves mere children of
nature. There was more material than intellectual improvement. The
literary movement hardly touched women in everyday life ; the philan-
thropic movement had not made any headway, and as for politics, it was
only the great ladies, with relatives and friends among statesmen, who con-
cerned themselves with public affairs. Morals were at a low ebb, and
female education was anything but inspiring.
Returning to the sixteenth century we further ol)serve that no country
of Europe contained so many teachers, professors, and patrons of literature
and real science in general, as (ierniany ; accord inglv a por-
€3ciuimny
tion of the universal enthusiasm for the ancient languages.
and for the restoration of religion and letters, could not fail to be com-
municated to the wives and daughters of the friends of these upliftinj.»^
subjects.
It is, nevertheless, a matter of surprise, that in thc^se times of the
greatest fermentation and enthusiasm, a greater number of German women
did not obtain celebrity by their erudition and their writings. Excepting
the princesses of the house of Austria, very few (ierman women of the
sixteenth century and following distinguished themselves by their literary
attainments, or their patronage of the learned. Charitas, an abbess of the
convent of St. Clara, at Nurnberg, read Oreek works and wrote Latin
letters, a small collection of which is still preserved. Constantia, a
319
L
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
daughter of the learned Peutinger of Augsburg, has received worthy men-
tion by Ulrich von Hutten ; but other examples of participation in learning
and letters by women of Germany are rare.
Spain remained very far behind all the other civilized countries of
Europe in regard to the number and zeal of the friends of learning. That
kingdom, nevertheless, produced more women than Ger-
many, who were acquainted not only with the Greek and
Latin, but also with the Hebrew and other Oriental languages, or stepped
forward as public orators, to fill the pope and the cardinals with astonish-
ment, or to convert the ol^stinate Jews.
In the next century, on the continent, as in England, the partiality of
the sex to ancient literature and the study of the sciences, properly so
called, was considerably diminished. At the same time, however, the
desire of acquiring a knowledge of the modern languages and their best
works, and the ambition of speaking and writing the mother tongue with
elegance and precision, gradually became more general, especially in
France.
The state of female society in America bore a general resemblance to the
English, though considerably modified by the peculiar circumstances of the
country. Great value was placed upon education from the
beginning ; and marked privation for the sake of placing the
children in good schools was not uncommon. There were, during this
period, not many instances of the thorough and elegant female education,
which the higher classes of the French and English received, but women
were generally intelligent and well informed ; a good knowledge of history,
the popular sciences, Latin, French, and Italian, were common acquisitions.
And now, having passed in rapid review the intellectual conditions sur-
rounding women during thc^se three centuries, what, we must inquire, were
csenerai some of the social and moral conditions? If the learning and
conduiotis attainments acquired by the fair sex in the sixteenth century
In Europe had been more general than they were, still they would
scarcely have proved sufficient to protect female virtue against the new
dangers and charms of a Rfe at court and all that it entailed.
During the reign of Louis XH. the life and character of that ruler and
320
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
his wife kept the ladies and gentlemen of the court witliin proper bounds.
Under Francis I., on the contrary', the virtue of few of the women attend-
ant on the court was proof against its incessant dissipations and amuse-
ments, the continual artifices of bold and cunning seducers, and the influence
of illustrious examples. It even became a prevailing opinion, that the loss
of female honor was a thing of no kind of consequence, but that it was
creditable when it was compensated by wealth, honors, and the favor of
the great.
Unfortunately, it was not the ladies of the court alone in whom the sense
of virtue and decency was extinguished. The court infected the capital,
and the capital communicated the contagion to the other cities of the
^in^'dom.
Aca)rding to the unanimous testimonies of historians and obser\'ers,
"^ostofthe courts and nations of Europe copied with increasing avidity
^UtiA r ^^^ pomp, the diversions, and the fashions of France. This
I'reiicli mania for imitating the French overcame, among many peo-
anera ^^^ ^j^^, most violent and dee[)-rooted national antipathy. It
. 'irstH-ized the courts and the superior ranks, and gradually descended to
^^^' middle and lower classes.
In this state of things the character of woman was warped by the
temptations and impulses of the tinus. In tin* court of I^Vance, as has been
''hser\cd, in the houses of the nobility generally, cuul indt-ed almost every-
*h*Te. womankind was not respected, nor did woman res[)ect herself. The
•Nate wiLS governed by vanity, by the love of luxury and extravagance, by
the eagerness for self-indulgence, and i)y the absence of any respec t for true
di^nitv. France entered upon the sixteenth (cntury with all the social
:'\iU «»f the fifteenth, and with new dangers before her. I 'or in the midst
•»f the ruin of the old society, religion as well as social order ]ia<l become
♦ mhrnilcfl, and the Church had run herself into a> much danger as the
Sute. Fa<ls like the following ^how u>. how far the sex had been taught
ro throw aside all those (|ualiti<s which natnrall\ lulong to it.
After the (Conspiracy of Amboise in I5(><>, when the prisoners were taken
«Mit ciaiiy by dozens to be executed, we are assured that the (luises reserved
the principal prifwners for the purpose, bv th<*ir torments, (»f affording amuse-
3-21
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
ment to the ladies of the court after dinner, who then, with the king and
his brothers, placed themselves in the windows of the castle
Example o ^^ Amboise, in which the court was residine, while the vic-
Perverslon °
tims were brought into the courtyard of the palace, a few every
day, and put to death in the most barbarous manner, in view of the ladies.
We are told further, that the chancellor, Olivier, a man of more gentle-
ness in his character, was so horrified by the atrocities committed on this
occasion, that he took to his bed, and died before the end of the month.
Such were some of the qualities which seem to have prevailed more or
less among womankind in France at the commencement of the great
troubles of the latter half of the century of which we are speaking.
Among the aristocratic classes, especially among those which were
naturally taken for imitation, virtue had long been at a discount, and vice
reigned without any control. The pages of Brant6me and Pierre de
I'E^toile depict scenes of profligacy and sensuality among women which
cannot here be transcribed. We see them there displaying their immorali-
ties almost to the open day.
The civil war of 1580 was ascribed almost entirely to the maids of
honor of Queen Marguerite of Navarre and the young beauties of the
court, who, in their feeling of hostilities against the king of France, Henry
III., distributed their last favors almost indiscriminately to all who would
join in the insurrection against him, to such a degree that it was popularly-
called " the war of the lovers." This character of license had become so
strongly imprinted on the French character, that it remained more or less
attached to it until comparatively recent times.
The courts of Turin and Milan were those that first and most nearly
resembled the court of France. During the whole first half of the
eighteenth centurv the court of Turin had the reputation of
Courts of ^ '
Xnrln and being one of the first schools of politeness and politics not
Milan Qi^iy in Italy, but in all Europe. Young men of rank, who
were destined to figure in the great world, were more frequently sent to
Turin than to any other center of elegance.
In the latter years of King X'ictor Amadeus the court of Turin was soli-
tary and gloomy, rather than animated and agreeable. The jealoas king
322
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
was displeased if his servants and courtiers formed an intimacy with foreign
ambassadors and other strangers. So much the more free and uncon-
troDedwere the ladies of Turin. Each lady had not only a professed lover,
but also an agent or intermediate person to negotiate her love affairs.
At Milan also the alternate presence of Spanish, French, and German,
armies, and of other foreigners, had produced such a revolution in the
genius of the inhabitants towards the middle of the century under discus-
sion, that they allowed their women as great liberty as the fair sex enjoyed
ij France.
Women of the highest rank gave and went to masquerade balls in the
house of a certain iraiteiir, who had formctl such an establishment as to
Forms of enable him to Entertain the most respectable and the most
andCm^ numerous companies in a manner suitable to their condition.
piojmiciit Husbands had no objection to suffer their wives to go on a
party of pleasure, accompanietl by as many of the opposite sex ; to take
with them silver plate, costly wines, and other necessaries and conveniences,
and to bear all the expenses of such an excursion. It was not ladies of
quality alone that had shaken off the former restraints.
Women were seen, as at Paris, behind iht: counter of almost every shop.
Milliners and si-amstresses worked in public siiops. in whicli large com-
panies very often assembled. The nuns received \isit«>rs in their parlors
like other women ; they laughed, they jested, they diverted themselves
*ith music like the ladies of the court, and had assemblies a> frecjuently as
these.
In no other city of Italy were the nuns under so little discipline and
r<^traint as at X'enice ; especially in those convents which were provided
'•■r the reception of the daughters of the nobles. Nuns of noble birth
^f>t only received their friends and acquaintances in the private parlor,
"Ut paid visits out of their convents, and kept their hntrs almost in
public.
In the public promenades, at the tiieater. and at balls, the women never
appeared othi-rwise than masked ; and this ( untinual disguise embarrassed
•heoperali<»ns r)f jealousy in the same [)roportion as it f.uilitated the plans
^>rt}u' gratification of private wishes.
323
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
Of all the great courts of the continent, the German imperial court dur-
ing the reign of Charles VL relinquished the least of its ancient etiquette,
and was least inclined to adopt the French manners and fash-
Gcnnati -^^^^ jj^^ emperor commonly ate with the empress and the
archduchesses ; and both their majesties were always waited
upon at table by the first officers of their court. The only difference
between the common and the gala tables of the imperial family was, that, at
the latter, the dinner was attended with music. The imperial palaces,
pleasure-houses, gardens, and furniture were so mean as to produce a disa-
greeable impression on all foreigners. The court appeared in its greatest
brilliancy on the name-days of the emperor and empress. The emperor
was more devout than gallant, and had a great partiality for religious festi-
vals. He obliged not only all the ladies and gentlemen of his court but
likewise the foreign ambassadors to attend all his exercises of devotion.
The inhabitants of Vienna took part with great zeal in all the religious
festivals, and multiplied those of the court and of private families as much as
possible. The Baron von Pollnitz gives a rather complete
Vienna . , r i •
picture of the women of the time.
• ' They are, ' ' says he, ' ' rather more handsome than pleasing. They
are tall, well shaped, and walk well ; but when they courtesy, they do it in
such an awkward manner, that you would think their backs in danger of
breaking. In dress they are gaudy rather than elegant. Excepting few,
none of them use rouge and much less white paint. In a word, they have
nothing about them that denotes coquetry. They do not easily become
familiar, and, notwithstanding their vanity, tliey are cold like all our Ger-
man women.
"They are not so fond of gallantry as of gaming, luxury, and magnif-
icence. They know no books but their prayer books, are consequently
very credulous, and regard exercises of devotion as the essentials of reli-
gion. This ignorance renders their conversation rather insipid, unless it be
animated by love. They have at least as high a notion of Vienna, as the
women of Paris have of that metropolis. All these little defects, however,
are compensated by a certain greatness of soul and uncommon generosity.
They are warm friends of those whose interests they once espouse.*'
EMPRESS MARIA THERESA.
ReprDducBd frnni a painting by W, Camp-
hausen, a Dusssldarf painter, and ana of the fora-
mnst painters of battles of any schnnl nr time,
Camphausen was a mernbar of the Berlin and
Vlanna Academies, and receivEU numEraus
medals from, the leadintJ Falons.
EMPRKSS MARIA THERESA.
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
Maria Theresa was the first German regent to relax the rigid etiquette
b'ith which her forefathers had fettered themselves. She admitted high
and low to her presence, listened to the complaints and peti-
***'** tions of her servants and sul)jccts with sympathy and
I)atience, and returned them such answers as a mother gives
to her children. She honored persons of merit of both sexes with
invitations to her table, which had never been done before at the Austrian
court. She gave the court of Vienna more liberty, more animation, and
more brillianc>' than it had ever before exhibited. The French manners
supplemented or at least gained ascendency over the Spanish and Italian
habits and languages, which had heretofore been predominant.
It is cestainly a remarkable characteristic of the eighteenth century,
that it produced a greater number of female sovereigns of talent than of
cOstinguished princes ; that the most important events during that period
were brought about by these princesses ; and that for nearly three fourths
of it, one of the most powerful nations of Kurope was go\erne(l by females.
Amoi^ these Maria Theresa and Catharine II. indisputably deserve the
foremost rank, not only for the greatness of their minds, but also for the
goodness of their hearts, and the ardent zeal with which they endeavored
to promote the welfare of their subjt-cts. Xeillier of these sovereigns was
without fanks, any more than the j^n.-atest and the l)est princes.
If Catharine II. had fewer female virtues than Maria Theresa, on the
other hand she possessed a more masculine mind and attaiiunents, and
conferred greater benefits on her em[)ir(r tlian tlur latter, by means of
establishments and institutions of general utility.
The court of X'ienna itself ditTere<l less from that of 1*' ranee, than the
Pnissian court under King I-Vederick William. This monarch suppressed
Canrt Jtf ''^^ ^^^^' P^^"M^ '^"^^ '^^^ ^'^^' diversion in which hi> father had
Pnctfcrlck emulated the l*Ven(*h court. The muses and graces tlrd fn>m
'" the orgies r)f this Milu*r\vi>e threat kin;; U> tin- roidente of his
still greater son, who ke[)t a court mr)re distini^uishcd for elegance than
splendor, at the Rheinsburg.
'/ntil the middle of the eighteenth century, tiie drink in;^ of toasts was
d common jiractice at the court of Berlin, and at most of the other < ier-
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
man courts. Drinking matches were thought creditable ; and though
drunkenness was not deemed honorable, yet it incurred no disgrace.
Moderate intoxication was not taken amiss even in ladies. The wildest
orgies were held in their presence ; and the participants in them were not
ashamed to reel from the bottle into associations with the gentler sex.
This public practice of drinking toasts, and this habit of intoxication,
were wholly inconsistent with the manners of the French. Only in private
festivals, which were inaccessible to all but their most intimate confidants,
did the French court surrender to such immoderate practices.
As early as the reign of Frederick Augustus, the Saxons were regarded
as the French of Germany, and the Saxon women were thought to ap-
proach nearest to those of France. It would, ^however, ap-
saxon ^^j. ^1^^^ ^j^^ women of Saxony copied the French in their
attire and ornaments, rather than in their sentiments and
manners. When the former gave way to love, their passion was of the
heroic cast ; and this elevated sentiment they were taught by the romances
of chivalry, which were their favorite amusement. They were not so much
occupied with gallantry as to be prevented from attending to their domestic
concerns, or to polite female employments.
During tlie first half of tlie period, French fashions had but few, and
the French way of living scarcely any, adherents in the great commercial
Prencii In- ^^^^^^ ^^ Germany. The court cities alone had been the
fluencein mimics. The women of Hamburg were almost as closely
cermany confined as the women of the East. They went scarcely any-
where but to church ; or, if they walked or drove, they were always ac-
companied by their husbands. The patricians of Augsburg, Niirnberg,
and Ulm were almost utter strangers to conviviality and hospitality. In
these imperial cities, both sexes rigidly adhered to the ancient fashions in
dress. Even natives of the other sex were not admitted into the female
circles, unless they were near relatives or intimate friends.
Not until the Se\'en Years' War did the new epoch in the social and
CiTects of ^^"^^'stic life of Germany begin. From this time forward,
tiie Seven the eighteenth century was characterized by a wonderful al-
Years' 'War f^^ation. The numerous garrisons of foreign troops, and the
328
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
ennui of gay and young officers in winter quarters, produced a multitude
of societies and social amusements which were afterwards continued, and
proved the fruitful parents of a still more numerous progeny.
From this time arose the mixed societies, under the names of concerts,
picnics, clubs ; the practice of having separate apartments for husbands,
wives, and children ; the unobstructed visits of men to persons of the
other sex ; the more liberal education of females, their admission into large
mixed societies, their increasing consequence, and their improved modes of
dress ; and, finally, genuine hospitality to strangers, true conviviality
among friends, games- of hazard, taste and elegance in furniture and
equipages, the desire for fashion and luxuries, fondness for reading and
amusement, and the habit of travel, — all of which brought to womankind
of the following century a priceless heritage.
No period in history has probably been more remarkable in its influence
upon women than the so-called period of the French revolution, embracing
the regal decades, also, leading uj) to this remarkable subver-
■tion ^J^f^- Under the immediate successor of Louis XV. , the
most ancient and to all appearances the most firmly estab-
lished throne in Europe was subverted, and the most brilliant court sud-
denly dissolved.
A nation which had hitherto considered its inviolable attachment and
loyalty to its monarchs as one of its principal virtues, which had viewed
even the vices and foibles of its rulers and of those who enjoyed their favor
^'ith reverential awe, first incarcrratrs the best of sovrreij^^ns. the most
liable of kings, in a dungeon of misery, tluMi draj^s him to the fatal scaf-
Wd, and both under circumstances the most rcpiij^nant to ivery ft-ding
*^Qrt The same nation renounccrs the religion of its ancestors, for which
'^had fought for centuries ; annihilates its ancient constitution, and with it
^"^two higher orders of society, which it had been acxustomed to consider
^ the strength or flower of the community : abrogates its laws, its institu-
tions for instruction and education ; relincjuislies its former way of thinking
*^d modes of life, and even no small part of its peculiar char;ict( ristics ; in
^ing the first steps toward f)romised freedom, is invohetl in the most
l^minious slaver)' ; endures and perpetrates the most atrocious crimes.
329
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
and, at the very time when it is bleeding under the axes of its tyrants,
achieves the most brilliant victories, which excite not less admiration than
the enormities committed and tolerated, inspire detestation and contempt.
The French revolution is one of those phenomena, the causes of which
no finite intellect can fully enumerate, and still less can it accurately appre-
ciate the effects of each of these causes. Upon the whole it
may be asserted, that whatever tended to establish the arbi-
trary power of the French monarchs, and encouraged the abuse of that
power with its attendant vices, corruption, oppression, and financial em-
barrassment, must be reckoned among its concurrent causes.
During the reign of Louis XIV., the disorders of the court and the
distractions of the kingdom increased with a rapid progress. In the first
twenty years of the reign of Louis XV. , Cardinal Fleury retarded the fall
of the tottering kingdom by his frugality and solicitude for the preserva-
tion of peace. But after his death it advanced with accelerated velocity
towards its dissolution, which could not even be checked by the accession
of so promising a monarch as Louis XVI.
Under Louis XVI., as under his predecessors, the women were very
important factors in governing the men who enjoyed the confidence of the
monarch. The deficiency of virtue and talent, however, proved more
detrimental than did in other times the greatest criminality. This defi-
ciency both of great vices and crimes, and of great virtues and abilities, is
perhaps one of the most certain symptoms of decline or degeneracy.
The principal vices of the nobles under the reign of Louis XVI. were
their inordinate love of gaming, of horse-racing, of mistresses, and the
soclet destructive profusion into which these passions led them.
micler Tlic reigning vices of the men became also the vices of the
i^oa s XVI. ^yQi^^^p Ladies of rank, or those who wished to be consid-
ered as such, gamed, squandered their fortunes and involved themselves in
debt, like the men. They had lovers and expensive gewgaws, as the men
had their mistresses and horses. They also murdered their time with the
same frivolous amusements and dissipations as the men.
Happy marriages and conjugal fidelity became more rare than ever.
Public illicit connections with other men than those whose name they bore,
330
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
were the prevailing fashion, and therefore ceased to give any offense. Peo-
ple married in compliance with the will of their parents, or for other motives
of convenience, that, after the nuptial knot was tied, they might enter into
a still closer private union with the objects of their hearts.
These connections assumed the exact character of matrimonial unions,
and the perpetual change of lovers and mistresses, which was formerly so
much in vogue, disappeared almost entirely. With married women, none
of their male acquaintances were more rarely seen than their husbands,
and with none did they less frequently meet in society. The lover gen-
erally defrayed the expenses of the toilet and other contingent expenses of
his mistress. But if he was too poor, or not sufficiently liberal, to satisfy
the continual demands of fashion and the love of display, the lady applied
to the person whose name she bore ; and it was only when she had ac-
counts to settle with milliners, jewelers, and other dealers in fashionable
••ares, or when her purse recjuired to be replenished after losses at gaming,
that she bestowed a civil look or word uj)on her nominal husband.
One of the principal causes of the corruption of morals in the capital of
France had long been the different theaters, and especially the grand
opera. The ministers of Louis X\'I., in compliance with the
**" wishes of that virtuous sovereign, endeavored to correct the
Opera ^
scandalous abuses j^cMU-ratcd in this school of voluptuous-
ness and vicf. and to restrain tin- loose conduct of the actors and actresses
hynmickin*! of discij)lini-. Hut all tluse allcnipls at the reformation of
the <)pt;ra were without the smallest permanent effect. The opera re-
"^inwl, or iK-came even in a hij^her decree tiian it had been before, a
^'hrM.1 of debauchery, which contained none but the most prolligate charac-
^^'^^ and which received no additions but such as wtmr furnished by
^ licentiousness of a corrupted capital. It was, and remained, the
rtceptade of prostitution, adultery, and e\ery kind of i^^ross sensuality.
*'^ and enormities of every description, which were safe nowhere else,
^nd refuge in the bosom of the i^rand opera.
The French revolution began in tin- UK^nth of June, 17S9, when a part
^ the States-Cieneral, without the concurrence of the two higher orders,
^In opposition to the will of the kuvj^, constituted themselves a national
331
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
assembly, and were acknowledged by the nation as their representatives with
unlimited powers. From the very first moment of the Revolution, an
incredible infatuation seized the minds of almost the whole
Beff nn tiff of ^^ ^^^ nation. Liberty was the maeic word which inflamed
tlie carnage ^
every imagination ; and the love of liberty became a reign-
ing fashion, which, under a variety of shapes, drove a fickle and volatile
people from one extreme to another, and impelled men destitute both of
virtue and of patriotism, to sacrifice their own real interests, nay, their
lives themselves, not merely without murmuring, but even with a playful
gayety.
In a city so sunk in effeminacy and voluptuousness as Paris, the love of
liberty must have seemed as great a stranger as luxury in ancient Sparta.
And yet the people, or the mob of Paris, raised insurrection after insurrec-
tion, till the throne and all that surrounded it was laid in the dust, and out
of its ruins rose the monster of anarchy, to which nowhere so many victims
were sacrificed as in Paris itself. The fashion of liberty was just as
capricious and changeable in Paris as any other fashion ; but finally, after
the most dramatic oscillation between monarchy and democracy, the
national convention decreed the abolition of monarchy.
Neither the nobility nor the dignified clergy lost more by a change of
the established constitution than the female sex, which for nearly three
centuries past had reigned at the French court, and from the
A vital court had extended its swav over every town and province of
Question ' ^ ^
the kingdom. If there were to be no more despotic kings,
no ruling ministers or favorites of monarchs, no more festivities, levees, and
brilliant assemblies at the court, how could the all-influencing mistresses of
kings and ministers, how could the arbitresses of taste and fashion, of
literary and every other kind of merit, continue to exist? Yet even the-
womei) sacrificed all the advantages which had formerly been the most dear
to them, with enthusiastic ardor. They took the most active part in a//
the festivals of liberty, particularly in the memorable festival of confedera-
tion, held at Paris on July 14, 1790.
The women in the provinces, who were not able themselves to attend
this festival, expressed their attachment to the cause of liberty by going in
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
procession, in their l)est attire, to meet tlie sons of the countr}' going to
swear the sacred oath of liberty and ecjuality, or h\i attending them on their
return, and presenting them witli refreshments. In some places the wo-
men waited for hours and days upon tlie high roads, in orthr to receive the
deputies to the festival of confederation, and to invite tiiem to civic enter-
tainments and dances. If tlu* patriots accepted these invitation^, the ladies
took of! their martial accoutrements with their own fair hands, and the depu-
ties imagined tliemselves transported l)ack into tlie romantic ages of chivalry.
When dangers e.xternal and internal Ix-^an to threaten the newborn
liberty of France, the women not (»nly encouraged their husbands, brothers,
and lovers bra\cly to defend their couiUry. but they e\-
oman • ^.^.^^.^j themselves to the utmr)st to contribntr toward its de-
Patriotism
fense. After the e.\ampl<* of the women «»f our t)wn country
during the war (►f American independenre. many thon^and^ of zealous
female patriots laid tluir trinkets, their pin-money, or the irnit> of their
ec(momy upon the altar <»f the <'ounlry. Many wi»men. in-^pired with
enthusiastic patriotism and l(»\e of libert\ , renounced the eharaeter (»f their
se.x. and taking their posts among the eomb.itant^ for freidom. L:aine<l the
laurels of victory, or died the d«Mth of heroines in th<- !i<ld «»f bl.»od.
Hut the heads of ruling parlies forgot the proofs of patriot i-^m and anw-
age which the I*Veneh women had ilisplayed from the beniinnini^ <»f the
Revoluti<ui. as readily as tin y did the voluntary >airihre> of the king, the
nobles, and the eleri^y. The fair se\ was ne\ir treated iu so cruel and
shameful a manner, nor did it e\ ir display such ^reat antl at tin- ^ame time
such oilious qualities as during the Reii^n of Terror, which be^an August
io, 1790. an<l in the course of the succ^eedin^ \t'ar sprc-.id its luiex.impled
horrors over all I-Vancc. Purine th<>e days of l)h)od. iiuited by party
leaders, the rabble learned to trainj)le upon justice, inuoci nee, hum.uiity.
decency : to pay resj)ect neither to rank, nor s<.\, nor ai^e.
One of the rir>t an.l n]o>t shocking atrocities of tlnse days was the
massacre of the Princess L.imballe. with the hoi rid indiiiniiie> tliai were
aftenvards offered to lit r body, and the e.iirxiML: of her head o!i .« jiike
through the streets, and even to the r«inj«le. for the express purp<ise ti\
exhibiting it to the view of the (pieen and roy.il family.
33:5
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
The wife of the bloodthirsty Le Bon even secured lists of the persons
arrested, brought to her ever}- evening by the officers, and with her own
hand placed the letter G against the names of those that were
Bia ame ^^ ^^ guillotined the next morning.
Ij^ Bon ^ ^
One day an extraordinary spectacle was to be exhibited,
in the execution of twenty-eight persons at once, among whom were thir-
teen young girls. Le Bon issued orders that the people shculd attend this
spectacle, and these orders no one dared disobey, except at the hazard of
his life. A widow, who on account of indisposition, was no\ able to be
present at the execution herself, sent her daughter in her strad, having pre-
viously given her a strict charge not to show the least sign of sympathy for
the persons whose execution she was about to witness.
The daughter promised to keep command over herself, and actually did
suppress her emotions till the sixteenth victim was brought on the scaffold.
In her she beheld one of the most intimate friends of her youthful years, of
whose sentence she had not had the least j)rrvious intimation. At this
afflicting sight, tears burst from her eyes in spite of all her endeavors to
restrain them. Unfortunately the stroke of the guillotine (hd n<^t completely
sever the head from the body, so that the executioner was obliged to tinish
his work with a knife. At this horrid sj)eclacle the young lady fainted,
which being observed !)y the wife of Le Bon, who constantly sat upon the
scaffold, the sanguinary tiend exclaimed, " Look at that monster of an
aristocrat I Secure her ! "
Both the mother and the daughter were innnediately taken into cus-
tody ; and the latter, two days after, atoned for her tears .md fainting with
her life. Many similar atrocities. e(|ually inconsistent and revolting, are
met with during the Reign of Ternjr.
Long before the Revolution, the I'Vench women had been reproached for
attending public executions, regardless of tin- delicacy and nindcsty natural
to their sex. This pecuii.irity in their character was displayed
Public , . , ,, I • • 1 1 • 'iM
— , ^. (hirmirthe Kevohition \\\ tlie nin>t ^trikniv- manner. 1 lie ex-
Kxecniionit '^
ecution^ daily and hourly in<'r<a>in^ in nnni!)er. >«» far fn»m
fatiguing and satiating either the women or men. seein«(l only to in* rease
their thirst for blood, and their desire of witnessing the^e horrible sights.
334
MARIE ANTDINETTE
CDNDEMNEEI,
.o^-
ReprDducBd frnm a painting by Paul LlBla-
rache, ana of the graatsst history and portrait
painters. EelarachB was a niamher of the lusti-
tutB of FrancB, and also of tha AcadBmias at
AmstBrdam and St. PBtersburg. " Esath of
GuBBn Elizabath," " Joan of Rvc in Prison/'
" Massacra of St. F^BrthnlomBw," and " Childrsn
Caught in Storni" arn among his niastBrpiacEs.
^^f^/V3^'
MARIE ANTOINETTK, CONDEMNED.
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
The spectators went from these scenes of carnage to the theaters, which
even in the days of the execution of the kinj^ and of the queen were not
less numerously attended than at other times, there, possibly, to forget their
crimes of contemplation amid other diversions.
Such arrests, such imprisonments, such tribunals, and such executions as
France exhibited during the Reign of Terror, had never been witnessed in
any civilized nation of modern times : neither, also, the undaunted fortitude
and the cheerful alacrity with which thousands of every age, rank, and sex
met death. It does not appt^ar surprising tiiat military men. magistrates,
and courtiers should meet death with fortitude ; but it justly excites aston-
ishment, that mere striplings, and even frmak-s, some of them quite young
girls, some of them newly married women, who had but just l>egun to enjoy
the pleasures of life, should ascend tlie scaffold with the s;une tranquil
fortitude.
Among the persons who j)rincipally contributed to this spirit of heroism
were the fair fanatic Charlotte Corday and the unfortunate, Marie Antoin-
Citarloite ^^^^' Charlotte Corday, who had stabl>ed Mar.il to his death,
antf^Marle «'^^'^*"^^^'^l ^^^^" scaffold biMUtiful as an angel, and adorned like
Antoinette ji bridt-. The exam pk- of this amiable hcroini- firrd the imag-
ination of all young men and womt-n of enthusiastic minds throughout
France.
As the sufferings of the (jucen exceeded beyond comparison those of
any other victim lA the Revoluii(»n. so her fortitude during tlie latter period
of her life and at her death surpassed every other example «)f hert)ism.
Divorced from the affections of the people, inhumanly separated from her
husband and children, subjected t«) iniuitneral)le insults and indignities,
confined in a dreary and noisome prison. Marie Antoinette maintained the
same dignity of dep<irtmenl as in the splendi<l apartments of Trianon : and
she never afforde<l her lormenters the gratitiration of seeing her sink pusil-
lanimously under her sufferings.
On the dav of her death there were onlv two moments
Scenes at ;
Bxecntlon in which >he yielded to her emoti«)ns. She had i-xpected that
she should Ih' conveyed to the place i»f execution as the king
had been, in a coach. When, therefore, she s;iw the cart in which she
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
was to be conveyed, she blushed and wiped her eyes. When she
ascended the guillotine, her aspect struck such awe into the executioner,
that he involuntarily uncovered himself and made a profound obeisance.
By the same commanding aspect she caused the invectives and execra-
tions which till then had continued without intermission, to cease for a
short time. To atone for the crime of his involuntary respect, the execu-
tioner tore off the queen's neck handkerchief with brutal violence. The
miscreant rabble raised a shout of exultation. Neither the brutality of the
executioner nor the ferocity of the sanguinary mob produced the slightest
alteration in the queen's features. But when the ruflfian proceeded to pull
off her cap, and cut off her hair, turned gray with affliction, which he
trampled under his feet, her anguish became too strong for nature to
endure, and the queen began to weep. The tears of the illustrious sufferer
produced a solemn silence, which continued till the sufferings of the im-
perial victim were ended.
The total overthrow of the ancient and the establishment of a new
system of government, the disappearance of the court and everything con-
nected with it ; the emigration, execution, or impoverishment of the princi-
pal landed proprietors and other persons of rank or wealth ; the important
events of the Revolution, and particularly the great calamities and crimes to
which it gave occasion, produced many changes in the way of thinking
and the mutual relations of the sexes which became very conspicuous in
the next century.
French manners and customs, French fashions and way of living, were
as extensively diffused in the other courts and among the other people of
Diffuaioii of ^"^^^P^ during the reign of Louis XVl. as under any pre-
Krencli ceding sovereign of I'Vance. Among the European coun-
BlannerH ^^.j^^^ which were called polished, Portugal was the only one
that, during the latter years of the monarchy, ado])t(xl neither the manners
nor the fashions of the French. In Spain and Italy, on the other hand,
both made a greater progress during the last (juarltr of the eighteenth
century than they had done in the foregoing two cintnries and a half.
In Germany and the north of Furope, the j)artialily for l^Vench manners,
fashions, and language still maintained the ascendency ; though in many
338
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
parts the inhabitants began to imitate the English. The latter renounced
everything that they had borrowed from the French, at the very time when
the French were seized with the Anglomania.
It was a well known proverb throughout all Europe, even at this time,
that England is the paradise of women. The customs of the people of all
xiie classes in England, however, were more favorable to the sex
Bnsriisii than the laws. The English women superintended the edu-
otnan ^.^tion of their children and the domestic economy, with a
fidelity that did them honor. They attended to the kitchen, to the cleanli-
ness of the houses and apartments, to the furniture and linen, with a care
and assiduity that were equaled in few countries and surpassed in none.
In return, the men relieved them from all the drudger}', not only of
rural but also of domestic irconomy. Persons of the weaker sex were
seldom or never obliged to assist in agricultural labors, as on the continent,
nor in brewing and baking. Even the milking of cows was performed by
men. Hence it is very easy to conceive why the English country girls
were upon the whole more beautiful and more blooming than those of the
other nations of the north of Europe : and why female servants were able
to appear neater and cleaner than in other countries.
In no nation of Europe did woman yet enjoy equal civil rights with
man, either in respect of inheritance or succession, or the management
ineaaaiit *^"^^ disposal of property ; and still less in regard to the
of ^nrofnaii*H administration of justice or the particif)ation in the legislative
RiflTtitH power. The rights of women have not only varied in all
ages among the different nations, but even in the same nation at different
periods ; so that attention can only be directed, in this connection, to the
most remarkal)le revolutions, singularities, and contradictions in the rights
of women.
It was a j)rineipal and fundamental law of the ancient (iermanic nations,
that women could not possess any family estate, and in the setjuel any fief,
^:»^— ^«» ■ «». ''^ riulil of propertv, because thev were unable to defend
Xonctiinir eitlu r the one or the other against the enemies of their coun-
^nroman ^^^, -y^^^^ same weakness of the sex likewise incapacitated
them for ihe princely dignity.
339
THE PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE AND FOLLOWING.
The females of the ancient Germans received no dowry on their mar-
riage, from their fathers or brothers ; and, after the death of the father, the
sons divided the paternal estate to the exclusion of their sisters. Husbands
settled on their wives a portion, and jointure, both consisting of estates
more or less valuable, of which, however, the wives or widows enjoyed only
the use during their lives. After t^eir death the property reverted to the
families of the husbands.
This ancient law respecting women was abolished^ among all the Ger-
manic nations, when they settled in the Roman provinces, and became
i^ter acquainted with the Roman laws. They began with giving
Property females a dowry, which at first consisted only of slaves,
* * horses and other cattle. Not long afterwards they made
their daughters co-heiresses, first in unequal and afterwards in equal parts
with the sons. Bridegrooms and husbands soon imitated the liberality of
fathers. In many countries a community of property between husband
and wife was introduced, and with it the anti-Germanic practice, that the
survivor should inherit the joint estate.
Females became heiresses and ^proprietors, not only of family posses-
sions but likewise of tiefs. The beneficial effects of the adoption of the
Roman law by the Germanic nittions has been much discussed ; but the one
circumstance which argues most in its favor is, that all the German nations
not only adopted it, but likewise retained it during the periods of their
highest civilization.
According to the English laws, married women were not only regarded
as the property of their husbands, but as children who have no will of their
own, or as slaves whose will must be subservient to their masters. An
Englishman who was tired of his wife might publicly sell her like any
domestic animal, provided, however, he had her tacit consent to the
bargain.
So far were the English laws from allowing that a married woman had
any will of her own, that when husband and wife were jointly concerned
in the commission qf any crime, the husband alone was liable to punish-
ment. He was likewise subjt'ct to arrests and prosecutions for the debts
and misdemeanors of his wife. All these laws encouraged baneful licenses.
340
^f/
S^
mim
m(^
BOOK SIX
-©♦o-
THE GOLDEN AGE
OF
WOMAN'S ACHIEVEMENT
A CENTURY OF UNPARALLELED PROGRESS
A. D. 1800 TO A. D. i900
&
©
^
HANNAH MORB.
A. I>. 1745-1S33.
ENGLISH AUTHORESS AND PHILANTHROPIST.
J+ +J
^^ANNAH MORK, distinguished for her talents and the noble manner
K^/ in which she exerted them, was the fourth daughter of Jacob More,
a schoolmaster. She was born in Stapleton, (}loucestershire, Feb-
ruary' 2, 1745, and died in Clifton, September 7, 1833. She received her
education at a seminary kept by her sisters in Bristol, in the direction of
which she afterward became associated.
At the age of sixteen she composed a pastoral drama, The Search After
Happiness. In 1774 appeared her tragedy of The Inflexible Captive, and
in 1775 two legendary poems. .SV;- Jildrcd of the Bower, and The Bleeding
Rock. Ciarrick, the great actor, brought out her tragedy of Percy in 1777.
Abcnit 1779, religious imj)ressions induced Miss More to cease writing
for the stage. A volume of Sacred Dramas, Florio, a satirical tale,
and Relii^ion of the Fashionable World were among her next productions.
She began at Bath, in 1795, a nionthly peri(xlical called the Cheap Reposi-
tory, consisting of short moral tales written by herself, among which was the
Shepherd of Salisbmy Plain. The work attained an enormous circulation.
Miss More removed to Cheddant, founded there several schools, and
so(^n extended her eliarilal)le etTorts for the education of the poor into all
the surrounding country. After the appearance of her Strictures on the
Modern .System of Female Fducation, in 1799, she was invit(*d to draw up a
plan of instru( ti(»n for the Princess Charlotte of Waks, and prcKluced Hints
Toicard Form in i^ the Character of a Youni^ Princess. Cielebs in Search
of a Wife, lu r most popular work, went through ten editions in one year.
It was followed i>y /Practical Piety, Christian Morals, and Modern Sketches.
In 1S2S slie r«niove(i from Barleywood in (iloucestershire, where she
had lived tor scxcial years with her sisters, to Clifton. She accumulated
by her writings about 5150,000, one third of which she be(|uealhed for
charitai)le j)in])<)ses. In her latter days the severity of her relij^ious views
intnxhiced a SMUnwhat unner(.*ssary gloom into her life, though all the
powers <.t her mind were devoted to the solid imj)rovement of s«>ciety.
343
CAROLINB HBRSCHEL.
A. I>. 17ff0-1848.
ASTRONOMER AND SCIENTIST.
eAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL, sister of Sir William Her-
schel, was born in Hanover, Germany, March i6, 1750, "and died
there, January 9, 1848. She lived in Hanover till her twenty-sec-
ond year, when she went to England to join her brother William at Bath.
Here she turned her attention to astronomy, giving great assistance to her
brother, not only taking the part of an amanuensis, but frequently perform-
ing alone the long and complicated calculations involved in the observa-
tions. For her valuable assistance to the great astronomer she received a
pension from George III.
Miss Herschel took many separate observations of the heavens with a
small Newtonian telescope which her brother had made for her. With this
she devoted herself particularly to a search after comets, and between
1786 and 1805 discovered, alone, eight of these bodies, of fiv^e of which
she was the first observer. Her contributions to science, most of them in
her brother's works and under his name, are very valuable. She took the
original obser\ations of several remarkable nebulae in her brother's cata-
logue, and computed the places of his twenty-five thousand nebulae. Hum-
boldt speaks of a still unresolved nebula as discovered by his friend. Miss
Herschel. In 1798 she published her Catalogue of Stars, taken from Mr.
Flamsteed's observations.
After her brother's death she returned to her native city and passed the
rest of her days. In 1828 she completed a catalogue of the nebulae and
stars observed by her brother, for which she received a gold medal from
the Astronomical Society of London, and was elected an honorary member
of it.
In 1847 she celebrated the ninety-seventh anniversary of her birth,
when the King of Hanover sent to compliment her ; the Prince and Princess
Royal visited her ; and the latter presented her with a magnificent armchair
embroidered by herself ; and the King of Prussia sent her the gold medal
awarded for the * * extension of the sciences. ' '
344
HANNAH ADAMS.
A. ]>. 1756-1832.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL WRITER.
aANNAH ADAMS, one of the earliest female writers in America, the
aiithorc^ss of a \le7c of Religious Opiniojis, a History of Neiv Eng-
land, and a History of the Jncs, was born at Medfield, near Boston,
in 1756, and died at Brookline, Mass., November 15, 1832. Her father,
who kept a country store, was a man of literary tastes, and rather better
educated than persons of his class usually were at that time. She
showed at an early age a fondness for study, and acquired a knowledge
of Greek and Latin from some tlivinity students l:x:)arding with her father.
So great was her love for reading, that when very young she had committed
to memory much of Milton, Pope, Thomson, Young, and several other
poets.
Her father failed in busint»ss when she was but seventeen, thus obliging
his family to pro\'ide for themselves. During the Revolutionary war she
supported herself by making lace, and afterwards by teaching. Her first
work was published in 17S4, and met a ready sale. Her History of Neu^
England next appeared, in 1799, and was .likewise successful, but the labor
that it cost seriously inij)aired her health. Her writings, though ex-
tensively read, brought her very little pecuniary profit : yet they secured
her many friends, some of them persons in high staticm, among whom
President Adams and the Ablx* Gregoire may be enumerated.
The latter part of her life she passed in Boston, in the midst of a large
circle of friends, by whom she was warmly esteemed and cherished for the
singular excellency, j^urity, and simplicity of her character. During the
closing years <»f her life she enjoyed an annuity provided by the liberality
of some admirers. She was the first person whose remains were interred in
Mt. Auburn ( cnutery.
Her literary work showed great candor and liberality of mind and ex-
tensive research : and. although they were popular, yet they brought her
deserved fame which, linked with her gentleness of manners, made her a
loved figure in our early literary life.
345
JOANNA BAILLIB.
A. D. 176«-18ffl.
SCOTCH POETESS AND DRAMATIST.
JOANNA BAILLIE was born in Bothwell Manse, in Lanarkshire, Sep-
tember II, 1762. Her father, a Presbyterian minister, in 1776 became
professor of Divinity in Glasgow ; her mother was the sister of William
and John Hunter. She received a superior education, and soon began to
manifest those talents which subsequently excited the admiration of the
public. Her career was a singularly happy one, but devoid of all striking
incident.
In 1784 she went to reside in London, where her brother, Matthew Bail-
lie, had established himself as a physician. In 1806 she and her sister took
a house for themselves at Hampstead, and here she remained until her
death, which occurred on February 23, 1851. Agnes, her sister, survived
till 1 86 1, being then a hundred years old.
No authoress ever enjoyed a larger share than Joanna Baillie of the
esteem and affection of her literary contemporaries. All vied in showing
her a courteous respect, and even America sent its votaries to her little
shrine at Hampstead. Her greatest achievement is undoubtedly the nine
Plays on the Passio7is, which, though erroneous in conception, are full of
noble and impressive poetry, and often characterized by intense dramatic
power. The principle upon which Miss Baillie proceeded in the construc-
tion of these plays, was, like Marlowe and George Meredith, to take a
single passion as the subject of a work, and to exhibit its influence on an
individual supposed to be actuated by nothing else.
The most popular as well as the most powerful of her works is the
tragedy of De Monfort, Her Family Legend, produced at Edinburgh
under Scott's auspices in 18 10, was a great success.
Many of Miss Baillie' s minor pieces are very sweet, simple, and beauti-
ful ; and are marked by a spriglitly grace of versification, and a playful
serenity of spirit, which pleasantly remind one of the author's personal
character. She was under the middle size but not diminutive ; her form
was slender, and her countenance showed high talent, worth, and decision.
34G
MADAM K D'ARBLAY
(F^ANNY BURNEDY)
A. I>. 175S.1840.
ENGLISH AUTHORESS AND SOCIAL LEADER.
- ■» » '<» -
nrVRANCES BURNEY was born at Lynn Regis, in Norfolk, England,
-L 1752. Her mother was of distant F*rench descent and died when
she was but nine years old ; her father was a professor of music.
Her sisters were sent to school, but she, as she tells it herself, ** never was
placed in any seminary, and never was put under any governess or in-
structor whatever. " At ten years of age she had taught hei*self to read
and write, and became an incessant scribbler both of prose and verse, and
ardently fond of reading.
Six years after his wife's death her father married again ; and from her
fifteenth year onward, I-^anny lived in the midst of an exceptionally brilliant
social circle, which included the chief musicians, actors, and literary men of
the day, and not a few of her father's aristocratic patrons. Her father's
drawing room was in fact Fanny's only school, and not a bad one.
Her first published novel, Evtlina, was published clandestinely, and had
been received and praised everywhere before her father knew of the event.
Her fame sj)rea(l. Johnson had declared that there were passages in
Evelina which might tlo honor to Richardst>n : Sir Joshua Reynolds could
not be ])ersuaded to eat until he had finished the story ; and Burke had sat
up all night to read it. The second story, Cecilia, greatly increased her
I)opularily.
In i7Sr> Miss Hurney obtained a post in the service of Queen Charlotte,
consort of ( ieoij^e ill., and seven years later became the wife of NL D'Ar-
blay. a IVeiuh ofiuer of artillery, who with Madame de Stael, Talleyrand,
and other refugees, lived at *' Juniper Hall," Dorking. Her only child,
afterward the Rev. A. D'Arblay, was born in 1794.
Madame D'Arblay died at Bath, 1S40, and her celebrated ^wrwa/ rtwfl^
Letters wtre editt-d by her niece and published in 1842-6. Her memoirs,
the rambling recollections of an old lady, are full of imperfections: but de-
spite the>e and her extraordinary affections of style, the book gained con-
siderable ])opularitv.
347
ELIZABETH INCHBALD.
A. D. 1753-1891.
ENGLISH ACTRESS, DRAMATIST, AND NOVELIST.
^ LIZABETH INCHBALD was the daughter of John Simpson, a
^^ farmer of Stanningfield, near Bury St. Kdmunds in Suffolk, Eng-
land, where she was born October 15, 1753. When sixteen she
secretly left her family, prompted by an irrepressible desire to visit London ;
and when eighteen she accepted a theatrical engagement. After escaping
many dangers in a series of strange adventures, she betook herself to her
relatives. During this period she met Joseph Inchbald, an obscure actor,
whom she married on June 9, 1772.
Having now adopted the stage as a career, she went to Bristol, where
she made her debut as Cordelia on September 4, 1772; and for some years
she played in provincial theaters. Her husband died suddenly in 1779,
and in 1780 she appeared in London, playing Bellario in Philaster, at
Co vent Garden. Here she remained for nine years, but never rose beyond
mediocrity, an impediment in her speech, which was, however, supposed
to be cured, being certainly a bar to her progress.
After 1789 she devoted herself solely to literary labors, in which she
found her true vocation. Her earliest efforts were plays, her first being The
Mogul Tale, a farce, produced in 1784. She wrote or adapted nineteen
plays, her best being the comedies, Such Things Are, The Midnight Hour,
and The Wedding T>ar ; the hwccs, A/>/>eara?iee is Against Them, a.nd The
U'idou'\9 Vo7c ; and her adaptation from Kotzebue, Lore's Vows. But
her fame rests not upon her dramatic work so much as upon her novels.
A Simple Story and Nature and Art rank among English standard novels.
Mrs. Inchbald, who was a Catholic, became very devout in her later
years, and died at Kensington House, August i, 1821. One who knew
her well thus describes her personal appearance : " ' The fair muse,' as she
was often termed, was above the middle size, rather tall, of a striking figure,
but a little too erect and stiff. She was naturally fair, slightly freckled, and
her hair was of an auburn hue. Her face and features were beautiful, and
her countenance was full of spirit and sweetness. ' *
348
SARAH SIDDONS.
A. D. 17X5-1831.
THE GREATEST ENGLISH TRAGIC ACTRESS.
' ARAH SIDDONS was the daughter of Roger Kemble, a respectable
manager of a small traveling theatrical company, whose circuit was
in the midland and western parts of England. Sarah was the eld-
est child, and was born at Brecon, July 5, 1755. From her earliest child-
hood she was a member of her father's company, and in a playbill, dated
February 12, 1767, her name appears in the production of Charles the Firsts
assigneil to the character of the Princess Elizabeth.
When only seventeen she formeil an attachment to Mr. Siddons, who
was a member of her father's company, and after considerable opposition
from her parents, she was married to him on November 26, 1773. She was
shortly afterward recommended to (iarrick by the Earl of Ailesbur>', and
the result was an engagement at Drury Lane, where she made her first
appearance in the character of Portia. At the end of the season she was not
re-engaged, and for six years she played in the provinces, making her
greatest successes in York and Bath : but her reputation grew so fast that
in 17S2 she was invited to return to Drury Lane. She accepted the offer
and made her reaj)pearance as Isabella in The Fatal Marrianre, Her suc-
cess was immediate and permanent, and from this time to her retirement
she was the inKinestinned (jueen of the stage. After her retirement from
the staj^e, Mrs. Siddons gave occasional public readings, from Shakespeare
and Milton. She died on June S, 1831, and was buried in Paddington
churchyard.
As an aetros Mrs. Siddons stands unapproachetl, so far as can be judged
from recorded criticism, in every line of tragetly — her pathos, her rage,
her despair, her >iitTering, her grief, all being i)erfect in exprt^sion and con-
vincing in n.ilinalness. Endowed by nature with a gloriously expressivv'
and beautiful face, a (jueenly figure, and a voice of richest power and flexi-
bility, she worked as>iduou^ly to cultivate* her mental and physical gifts
until she rt'ac lied a luiv^ht <»f i)erfecti(Mi which has probably never l>een sur-
I)a>s((l l»y any i)layer «>t any age or country.
340
NIARIA EDOBWORTH.
A. D. 1767-1849.
ENGLISH NOVELIST.
^TTHIS English writer was the daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth,
® I fe an inventor and author. She was born in Berkshire, January i,
1767, and died in Edgeworthtown, Ireland, June 13, 1849. She
was fifteen years of age when her father succeeded to the family estate in
Ireland, where under his direction she pursued her studies, formed habits
of sharp observation, and developed that cheerfulness which made her
always beloved in society, and that hope and confidence which are requisite
to a full exertion of mental powers. Early indicating her taste for literary
pursuits she seems never to have wished to be married ; and as it had been
the delight of her father to assist in developing her talent, she in return
loved to remain by the family hearth, gratifying his earnest but less gifted
mind by her literary successes, and repaying in his old age those attentions
which she received in youth.
The series of her novels began with Castle Rackrent, and continued
without interruption till 1817, during which period there appeared from her"
pen, Belinda^ Popular Tales, Leonora , Tales of Fashionable Life, Patron-
age, Harrington, and Ormond. The aim of Miss Edgeworth, like Joanna
Baillie in her dramas, was to make each novel an elucidation of one particu-
lar passion or vice.
On the death of her father in 18 17 her career of authorship was for a
time interrupted. She did not resume her works of fiction till she had
expressed her affection for him by completing the memoirs which he had
begun of his own life. Not until 1834 was her exquisite story of Helen
published ; and her literary career ended with the child's story of Orlandifio,
which appeared in 1847. With the exception of a trip to the continent and
a short residence at Clifton, she ])asscd the latter years of her life at Edge-
worthtown, unspoiled by literary fame, loved in the family c ircle which
daily assembled in the library, and admired by all as a i)attern of an intel-
lectual and amiable woman.
Among the most ardent admirers of her novels was Sir Walter Scott
350
JANK AUSTEN.
A. D. 1775-1817.
ONE OF THE GREATER ENGLISH NOVELISTS.
<^i*e-j>^->«> -
JANE AL'STEN was born December i6, 1775, at Steventon, Hamp-
shire, of which parish her father was the rector. Here she spent the
first twcnty-f'ivc years of her peaceful Hfe. She was the youngest of
seven children, among whom she had but one sister, and of her brothers
two ultimatriy rose to the rank of admiral in th<5 navy.
Her father, who used to augment a slender income by taking pupils,
gave her a better education tlian was common for girls towards the close of
the eighteenth century. Jane learned French and Italian, and had good
acquaintance with luiglish literature, her favorite authors being Richard-
son, Johnson, Cowper, Crabbe, and later Scott. She sang a few old ballads
with much sweetness, and was very dexterous with her needle. In her life
there is a hint of an affection for a lover who died suddenly.
In iSoi she went with her family to Bath, anil after her father's death,
in 1H05, removed to .Southampton, and finally, in 1809, to Chawton near
Winchester. .She had written stories from her childhood, but it was here
that she first gave anything to llie world. Four stories were published
anonymously during her lifetime : Smsr and Sensibility, Pride and
Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and limma. The first two were written before
the gifted anthoix-ss was more llian twenty -two years old.
Marly in 1S16 her health began to give way. In May of 1817 she
resorted f«)r medical ad\ ice to Winchester, and here she died two months
later, July iS, 1S17. She was buried there in the cathedral. Xorfhan^er
Abbey and PerMtasion wrre published in 1S18, when the authorship of the
whole six was fn>t acknowledged.
Jane Auslt^ii's novels are the earliest examples of the so-called domestic
novel in Fui^land. nor within their own limits have they been surpassed or
even e(|ualetl since. Her worltl is the gentry of the England of her time,
and she portrays ii^. exeryday life with marvilous truthfulness of insight.
Her characters are perfectly distinct, and more alive to us than many of the
persons among whom we actually live.
353
MADAME RECAM:IER.
A. D. 1777-1849.
CELEBRATED FRENCH BEAUTY.
4eANNE FRANgOISE JULIE ADELAIDE RECAMIER, a cele-
T brated French woman, was probably the most beautiful and j^raceful
^^ woman of her day. She was born in Lyons, December 3, 1777, and
died in Paris, May 11, 1849. ^^^e was the daughter of a post office con-
tractor named Bernard, and in April, 1793, married a rich banker of Paris
many years older than herself. By the brilliancy of her conversation and
the charm of her person and manners she made her home a great place of
resort for men of education and genius. Under the rule of the French
directory and during the consulate and empire her house was constantly
frequented by such distinguished personages as Lucien Bonaparte, Moreau,
Bernadotte, La Harpe, Benjamin Constant, and David.
The salon of Madame R^camier took on a form of opposition to the
government, by and by, and she was obliged by Napoleon to leave Paris.
She resided for some time at Lyons, then with the celebrated Madame de
Stael at Coppet, then went to Italy, and did not enter France until the fall
of Napoleon, when she returned to Paris and reopened her salon. In con-
sequence of a reverse of fortune, she retired in 18 19 to the Abbaye-aux-Bois
near Paris, but her house nevertheless continued to be the resort of eminent
men, among whom was Chateaubriand, who was her de\oted admirer.
Through her connection, which regarded Madame de Stael as its chief, she
exercised, although herself producing nothing, a considerable influence
upon French literature.
For some years before her death she became blind, an affliction which
she bore with the most gracious serenity ; never comj^laining of it except as
it prevented her attentions to her friends. Her distinguishing traits were
an extreme sweetness of disposition and tenderness of heart, which obtained
her the affection of all about her. It should be noted that she was quite
unspoiled by the homage that was paid to her extraordinary beauty ; beauty
copied by painters, and perpetuated by Canova in marble.
354
FRANCES TROLLOPB.
A. I). 1778-1863.
ENGLISH CRITIC OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC LIFE.
^)mP:RICANS ha\
-^A- Domestic Life
have not generally loved Mrs. Trollope. She wrote
Jfe of the Americans after a three years' residence in
the United States. She was a keen obser\'er, especially of faults,
and she described what she saw in a most caustic, satirical, and sometimes
vulgar manner. She pictured Americans as coarse, selfish, intemperate,
affected, indelicate, and generally ridiculous. The descriptions were over-
drawn and were a hjtter medicine to the people described, while they af-
forded a vast fund of amusement to the English. America was then young
(1832) and probably profited by Mrs. Trollope's satire, even though it was
coarse.
After a few years she renewed her attack on America in The Adventures
of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaic. This was well founded in fact, for she pic-
tured the miseries of the colored people of the Southern States. The
Dear of Wrexhi/i is counted her best work. Other books came at the
rate of two or more a year. She wrote A Visit to Italy in n>uch the same
caustic style kA Iut books concerning America, but people had too much
revert-nce for that classical coinitry and did not relish her ridicule, as they
did when she dealt with unclassical and upstart America.
She at Icni^th proceeded to satirize people of her own land in Margrave^
Jessie Phillips, and The Lanrinirfons. The first deals with the man of
fashion, tin- second with the new poor-laws, and the third with the ** su-
perior peo|)le," the "bustling Hotherbys " of society.
One e«^j)ecially interesting thing about the life of Mrs. Trollope is that"
she intered njxm literary work to win bread when she was over fifty years
of age. Her Inisband was a lawyer who had not been successful and was
in poor health. Tluy had six children, non<' of whom could add to the
scant income. Mr>. Trollope took to writing, gained tinancial success with
the fust \<.)linne. and continued to write until far advance(l in years. She
was the moilur of Anthony Trollope and Thomas Adolphus Trollope who
became noted authors.
355
JANE AND ANNA MARIA PORTER.
A. D. 1776-18fiO: 1780-1882.
ENGLISH ROMANTIC NOVELISTS.
^TTHEIR father was an Irish officer, who died when they were quite
1 young. The care of the children devolved upon the mother, who
had but limited means for their support and education.
Mrs. Porter removed to Edinburgh for the education of her children.
Here, Walter Scott, then a student in college, became a fast friend of the
family, and often entertained the little girls with stories of * * witches and
warlocks. * '
The family afterward removed to Ireland and later to London, chiefly
for educational reasons.
Miss Jane Porter became the authoress of two well known books, Thad-
deus of Warsaw and The Scottish Chiefs, The first is considered the better
book. The Scottish Chiefs is not a correct representation of national life
and manners. The patriot William Wallace is represented as too much of
a drawing-room hero. But the book has been widely read and is full of
vivid picturesqueness.
Thaddeus of Warsaw has been translated into several foreign languages
and gained for Miss Porter admission as lady canoness into the ** Teutonic
Order of St. Joachim."
Miss Anna Porter became a writer at the age of twelve, and altogether
• produced over fifty volumes. Among them are. The Lakes of Killamey,
A Sailor's Friendship and a Soldier's Love, The Hungaria7i Brothers, Don
Sebastian, Ballad Romances and other Poems, and The Knight of St. fohfi,
the latter being the joint work of the sisters.
Sir Robert Ker Porter was their brother, about one year older than
Jane. He was an artist of note, whose best productions were battle pieces.
His Storming of Seringapatam was a painting 120 feet long. He went to
Russia in 1804 and became painter to the czar.
His sister Jane spent some time with him in St. Petersburg.
We here give honor to the mother for the careful training of her three
fatherless children, who attained to eminence in artistic and literary lines.
356
MARY K. SOMERVILLE.
A. D. 1780.1872.
ENGLISH WRITER ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS.
HE was the daughter of Admiral Sir William Fairfax. When about
twenty-five years of age she married Samuel Greig. Three years
later she was left a widow with two sons, but with a considerable
fortune.
She applied herself to a thorough course of mathematics, which was the
foundation of her careful scientific writing in later years.
After completing her studies she married her cousin, Dr. William Som-
erville, who was of much assistance in her further studies. Dr. Somerville
was inspector of the army medical board and, aside from his professional
duties, was able to give some time to special scientific pursuits.
Mrs. Somerville was invited by Lord Brougham to rewrite in a popular
form The Celestial Mechafiis9ri of the Heavens by Laplace. This was re-
ceived with great enthusiasm and gave Mrs. Somerville, at once, a reputa-
tion as a scientific writer.
Later she wrote Connection of the Physical Sciences, Physical Geography^
Microscopical and Molecular Sciences,
She was honored with membership in the Royal Astronomical Society
and several other British and foreign scientific societies.
She thus became one of the pioneers of this century in scientific stud-
ic-s. There was no financial necessity for her becoming a writer. She
possessed ample means and might have been a woman of fashionable
leisure, but she chose to be a student and add to the world's treasure of
knowledge.
She ga\ e the years of her early widowhood to studies which to most
minds are anything but attractive. By this thorough discipline gained by
persistent work, she made a place and a name for herself in a department
of literature which, in the first part of our century, was ornamented with
the names of but few women.
Much of the popularity of her writings is due to their clear and crisp
style, and the iniderlying enthusiasm which pervades them.
357
MARY RUSSELL NIITFORD.
A. D. 1786-1855.
ENGLISH AUTHORESS.
/JJI'NYONE who wishes to obtain a picture of English rural life should
^^^ read the works of Miss Mitford. It is said that she obtained her
idea of this kind of writing from Irving' s Sketch Book, but she
showed herself a pupil to do honor to her teacher.
She was born in Alresford, Hampshire, England. Her father was a
physician and at one time possessed considerable wealth. On one occasion
he won $100,000 in a lottery, which, as usual, proved a great misfortune,
for he soon squandered that and all else that he possessed.
When twenty years of age Miss Mitford published three volumes of
poems, somewhat in the style of Sir Walter Scott. These met with a fair
degree of success, but she was not satisfied with them, and for several years
gave herself again to reading.
The financial reverses of her father made it necessary for her to do
something to win bread and she again took up the pen to support both her-
self and him. As we read her charming productions, we are not sorry that
she was obliged to resume writing.
Her sketches, Our Viliafre^ were not ai)preciated at first and many pub-
lishers of magazines refused them. They at length found a place in one of
the minor periodicals and after a time the public began to relish the fresh-
ness and exquisite finish of her sketches and they were put forth in book
form. She loved nature and helped others to do the same. Her readers
had looked at things before, now they saw them.
Miss Mitford wrote several other works, Country Stories. Edinburgh
Talcs, and several dramas, among them Ricnzi. Also Recollections of Lit-
erary Life in three volumes. But Our Village always held the first place,
and the obscure hamlet became a place of resort. People came to searcii
out the nooks and corners and haunts and copses so charmingly described.
One writer asks, "Who ever threw aside a sketch of hers half read?"
Another, "We cannot conceive of her rural delineation ever becoming
obsolete or uninteresting.'*
358
MRS. EMMA WILLARD.
A. D. 1787-1870.
IN HONOR OF
EMMA HART WILLARD
WHO ON THIS SPOT ESTABLISHED, A. D. 182I, THE FIRST PERMANENT SEMINARY IN
AMERICA FOR THE ADVANCED EDUCATION OF WOMEN. ERECTED BY HER PUPILS AND
FRIENDS, A. D. 1895.
HER MOST ENDURING MONUMENT, THE GRATITUDE OF EDUCATED WOMEN.
So reads the inscription of the statue at " Sage Hall," Troy, N. Y.
This pioneer educator of women was born in Berlin, Connecticut. She
was one of seventeen of her father's children and one of ten which her own
mother had borne him. Hers was a struggle for an education and to a
remarkable degree she was self-taught. We see her a girl of fourteen ris-
ing at four o'clock of a winter morning to study the stars. She taught the
village school at an early age and was at the same time pursuing advanced
studies, fitting herself for larger fields.
At twenty years of age she was called to important positions in three
different states. She went to Middlebury, V't. , where she took charge of
the academy. Two years afterward she married Dr. John Willard. For a
few years she gave up teaching, but owing to financial losses she again
resumed it. Had Dr. Willard been financially prosperous the world might
have been deprived of a noted educator. She opened a boarding school
for girls and was at the same time planning for something more extensive.
She determined to secure for young women the same collegiate advantages
that young nun enjoyed. Like all pioneers she was alone and found little
sympathy and less aid.
In iSiS slu' sent to (iov. Clinton of New York a plan for a female
seminary. The governor reconmiended the plan to the Legislature. The
equal rights of women in education were then for the first time advocated
in legislati\e halls. A female academy was incorporated and located at
Waterford. It was afterwards removed to Troy.
The Troy l\inalc Seminary has been the educational home of six thou-
sand young wonun. It was also the parent institution from which sprang
our seminaries and colleges for the education of women.
359
m
ANN HASSELTINEJUDSON.
A. D. 1789-1826.
PIONEER MISSIONARY.
ISS HASSELTINE became the wife of the pioneer missionary,
Adoniram Judson, and with him sailed for Calcutta in 1812. They
were ordered by the East India Company to quit the country, as
the Company was bitterly opposed to missionary effort. They finally
settled in Rangoon, Burmah.
In 1824, there being war between the Burmese and the British, Dr.
Judson and some others were made prisoners at Ava, the capital of the
Burman empire, and for two years endured untold sufferings. Mrs. Judson
was not made a prisoner and was permitted to visit her husband and the
others, as they were in chains, and as far as her means would allow, min-
ister to them. Their lives were thus saved, though we marvel that they
survived.
In addition to these horrors her children had smallpox and she was
obliged to care for them as well as look after the prisoners. She wore out
her precious life for the saving of others, and in 1826 died. She will ever
be known as one of the heroines of missionary history.
We give in part the testimony of one of the English prisoners :
** While we were all left by the government destitute of food, she with
unswerving perseverance, by some means or other, obtained for us a
supply. When the unfeeling avarice of our keepers confined us inside
or made our feet fast in the stocks, she, like a ministering angel, never
ceased her applications to the government, until she secured some relief to
our galling oppression.*'
When we remember that she lived two miles from the prison, was her-
self in poor health and without any means of conveyance, our hearts are
moved with deep reverence for this noble and devoted woman.
For the great work afterwards accomplished by Dr. Judson, the world
and the church are greatly indebted to Ann Hasseltine Judson. who was the
first American woman to leave her home and become a martyr to the mis-
sionary cause on the foreign field.
360
CATHERINE MARIA SEDGWICK.
A. T>. 1TR0.1867.
AUTHORESS AND TEACHER.
MISS SED(;WICK'S father. Theodore, was at the time of his death'
one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was the place of her birth. Her
first book was entitled A Nnv England Life. She intended it for a
religious tract, but it grew upon her until it became a book. The book
was both praised and censured. As a literary production in clear, vigorous
style, it was well-nigh perfect, but many considered it too severe a picture
of New Kngland Puritanism.
Her next book Redwood was a great success, being republished in Eng-
land and translated into French and Italian, German and Swedbh. She
now ranked among the very best of women writers of America.
Her Red'a'ood somewhat resembled the works of Cooper and in the
French version was attributed to him. She was a keen observer and her
works will be of permanent value as pictures of New England in the first
half of this century.
She wrote also The Traveler, If ope Leslie, or Early Times in Jfassa-
ehnsetts ( which is one of her best ), The Poor Rieh A fan and The Rieji Pour
Man, Live and Let Live, Means or finds, or Self Training, Morals and
Manners.
Hut Miss Sedgwick was an educator as well as a writer. She took the
management <>f a private school for young ladies soon after the death of
her father and continued that work along with her literary pursuits for fifty
years.
In the inidsl of her arlivilies she spent one year in Europe and described
her travels in Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home, which was published
in two volnnus. To \\\v descriptions of people, places, and customs in
Euro|)<' she brought the same masterly ability that is seen in her books
about thinjL^s Anieri('an.
She was horn Heeember 2.S, 17H9, and died n«ar Roxbury, Massachu-
setts. July 31. 1X67.
361
FELICIA HEMANS.
A. U. 1703-1835.
ENGLISH POETESS AND DRAMATIST.
<>-xe-c-<>
'(T>ELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS was born at Liverpool, September
I^ 25, 1793. Her father, George Browne, was a Liverpool merchant
of Irish extraction ; her mother, whose maiden name was Wagner,
was of mixed Italian and German descent.
Felicia was distinguished by her beauty and precocity, and at an early
age she manifested a taste for poetry, in which she was encouraged by her
mother. Family reverses led to the removal of the Brownes to Wales,
where the young poetess imbibed a strong passion for nature, read books
of chronicles and romance, and gained a working knowledge of the German,
Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. She also cultivated her excel-
lent musical taste.
Her first volume was published in 1808, when she was only fifteen years
of age, and contained a few pieces written about four years earlier ; her
second, entitled The Domestic Affections y appeared in 181 2. In the same
year she married Captain Hemans of the 4th regiment, who settled in Italy
in 1 8 18. After this time they never met again ; their marriage was under-
stood not to have been happy. Mrs. Hemans, though in poor health, now
devoted herself to the education of her children, to reading and writing,
and spent the rest of her life in North Wales, Lancashire, and latterly at
Dublin, where she died May 16, 1835.
Her principal works are, The Vespers of Palernio, a tragedy which
proved a failure when acted at Co vent Garden ; The Siege of \ aieucia.
The Forest Sanctuary^ The Songs of the Affections, Hymns for Childhood y
and Scenes and Hymns of Life.
Mrs. Hemans, without great originality or force, is yet sweet, natural,
and pleasing. But she was too fluent, and wrote much and hastily ; her
lyrics are her best productions ; her more ambitious poems, esj)ecially her
tragedies, being in fact quite insipid. Still she was a woman of true genius,
and some of her poems are perfect in pathos and sentiment, and will live as
long as the English language.
362
t^dian.STgoumey. ' "Trederika Breme"^
LYDIA H. SIGOURNKY.
A. D. 1701-1865.
AMERICAN WRITER OF PROSE AND POETRY.
KORWICH^nd Hartford, Connecticut, are respectively the places of her
birth and death. As a child she was precocious in acquiring knowl-
edge, and studied at Hartford and Norwich schools. In both cities
she established and conducted select schools for young ladies as early as 1814.
In 18 1 5 she published a volume, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse ^ and
from that time she became one of the most popular American poets.
She wrote extensively in many departments of thought, but all her
works had a distinctly moral and religious tone. In her Letters of Life
which was published after her death, she mentioned forty-six separate works
which she had produced, besides two thousand articles contributed to three
hundred periodicals.
In charitable and philanthropic work she was always active, giving not
only largely of her means, but also devoting much of her time and energy
to the cause of humanity. Her interest in education, also, continued un-
abated throughout her entire life. So the world is interested to know that
she was not a mere poetic dreamer, sitting apart from a suffering world.
We mention a few of her works : Trails of the Aborigines of America ^
Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since, Letters to Young Ladies (which
had a run of twenty American and h\Q English editions). Letters to Mothers,
Past Meridian.
In 1840, Mrs. Sigourney visited Europe, and two volumes of her verses
were issued in London.
She married a Hartford merchant, Charles Sigourney, in her twenty-
eighth year and with him led a life of ideal domesticity.
Mrs. Sigourney was sometimes accused of being an imitator of Mrs.
Hemans, but we doubt whether the imitation was deliberate or conscious.
With similarity of taste and sym{)athy it is not surprising that tliere should
be a similarity of tliought and expression ; the feeling of religious devotion
and moral elevation is a common heritage, and often finds expression
through different persons in like symbolism.
365
LUCRETIA IVCOTT.
A. I>. 1 793-1 8S8.
THE QUAKERESS REFORMER.
>o;H-W-^r8«- - - ■
T pUCRETIA COFFIN was born in the island of Naptucket of noble
^V Quaker stock. She taught school at fifteen. At eighteen she
married James Mott, and this married life has been spoken of as
one of the most perfect the world has ever seen.
In 1818 she became a minister of the Hicksite Quakers. Her marked
intellectual ability, sweetness of face and disposition, and great heartedness
won for her marked success. But she was first and always a frugal, pains-
taking wife, mother, and homemaker, "one of the rarest examples of
womanhood America has yet produced."
We quote from Mrs. Mott's words concerning herself. " My sympathy
was early enlisted for the poor slaves. The ministry of Elias Hicks and
others on the subject of the unrequited labor of slaves, and their example
in refusing the products of slave labor, all had the effect of awaking a
strong feeling in their behalf."
' ' The oppression of the working classes by existing monopolies and the
lowness of wages, often engaged my attention and I had a great desire for
a radical change in the system, which made the rich richer, and the poor
poorer.
'* The temperance reform early engaged my attention .... and
the cause of peace had a share of my efforts. ' '
In 1833 she helped form the Anti-slavery Society of Philadelphia. In
1840 she was sent with other women as a delegate to the World's Anti-
slavery Convention in London. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of
the number. The women delegates were rejected because they were wo-
men. This greatly exasperated them and Mrs. Mott and Mrs. Stanton
determined on calling a woman's rights convention upon their return to
America, which they did.
Lucretia Mott, the sweet Quakeress, reformer, philanthropist, a woman
of modesty and courage, gentleness and force, with a clear brain and a
great heart, wrought quietly but mightily for God and humanity.
366
AGNES STRICKLAND.
A. I>. 1796-1874.
ENGLISH HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITER.
MISS STRICKLAND occupied a field almost all her own ; viz,y the
writing of tlie lives of royalty and especially the female rulers.
She began writing historical romances in verse form, something
after the manner of Sir Walter Scott. Worcester Field is one of them.
She next turned to the writing of prose histories, especially adapting
them to the young. Here she gained the quality of being, first of all, inter-
estiug. Pilgrims of liaising ham and Tales and Stories from History belong
to this period.
The next step was out into her own field. Her reputation was estab-
lished by the first book in the line of royal biography, The Lives of the
Queens of England, the list extending from Matilda of Flanders to Queen
Anne. In this work as in some others she was assisted by her sister
Klizabeth.
Agnes was a strong partisan for royalty and the Church, and yet she
does not seem to have allowed her sympathies to warp her judgment.
Her pictures of manners and customs are a valual)le contribution to our
literature. She edited the Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, and as she was
a firm believer in the innocence of the cjueen, she ardently championed her
cause. Later she wrote Lizes of the Queens of Scotland, /.ires of the Bach-
elor Kiui^s of Lngland, Lizes of S^zrn /^isho/>s, and /.ires of the Last Lour
Stuart /^rincesscs. Part of this period was employed in producing an
abridged version of her Queens of /uigland.
Toward the dose «)f her life she received a civil list pension of one hun-
dred ])onnds in recot^nition of her merits.
In this book about women, Agnes Strickland certainly deserves a place
for having so industriously written about royal women, placing it in a read-
able form f»»r coniiiiiLi generations.
It is interestini; to observe that the first two stages of her literary
work were <»t almost unconscious preparation for her distinguishing
efforts.
367
MARY LYON.
A. D. 1797-1840.
NOTED EDUCATOR OF WOMEN.
lyi T. HOLYOKE COLLEGE is her monument.
J[^^ She was born at Buckland, Mass. Her parents were of sturdy
New England stock. The death of the father when Mary was
quite young left the family in straitened circumstances. She had a nat-
ural thirst for knowledge, but there seemed little prospect of gratifying that
thirst. However, she toiled and studied so diligently that at the age of
eighteen she obtained a position as teacher at Shelburne Falls — salary'
seventy-five cents per week.
She was, after a time, enabled to attend the Ashfield Academy, where
she is said to have studied twenty hours a day, and soon stood at the head
of her class. Subsequently Miss Lyon attended the school of Rev. Joseph
Emerson of By field, and was afterwards, for three years, assistant principal
of the Ashfield Academy, the first time the position had been held by a
woman.
For ten years she was an instructor in the academy for girls at Derry,
N. H. Here, in 1824, six young women were given diplomas on the com-
pletion of a three years course ; the first instance in the history of edu-
cation.
But she had higher aims, namely, the founding of an institution where
young women might be trained for highest usefulness. Her aims were con-
sidered visionary, her motives were misunderstood, and she was subjected
to ridicule. Knowing she was right, she persevered and in 1836 the
governor signed the charter incorporating Mt. Holyoke Seminary. Then
came the securing of funds, a most discouraging task, but she was
victorious. Nearly two hundred students were refused the first year and
four hundred the second year, for want of room.
On the marble above her grave is this sentence, which she uttered
shortly before her death in a talk to her students : ' ' There is nothing in
the universe that I fear, but that I shall not know my duty, or shall fail
to do it."
368
ANNA JAMESON.
A. D. 1T97-I8e0.
BRITISH AUTHORESS
:•-*"?
^T S a writer on matters of <irt aiul taste Mrs. Jameson probably sur-
t^K passed all other woman writers and on the literature of art she is*
conceded by many to stand next to Ruskin. She possessed an in-
tense love of the beautiful, a cultivated and discriminating taste, and her
breadth of* knowledj^e was almost phenomenal. Added to these were her
natural and cultivated powers of eloquent description.
In quantity her writings were as surpassing as in quality, and the former
does not seem to have impaired the latter.
Here again, i)irth and early training had a marked influence. Her
father, Mr. Murphy, was painter to the Princess Charlotte (daughter of
Cieorge I\'., who married Prince Leopold, afterward King of Belgium) and
by him her inborn artistic tastes were trained with great care.
She became the wife of Mr. Jameson, who received a government ap-
pointment to Canada. The marriage was not a happy one and they lived
apart. After traveling extensi\ely in Kurope, she devoted herself to
literary work, at first chiefly in biographical lines and relating specially to
women, /.oirs of the Pods is a series of sketches showing the influence of
women on poetic minds. Lizrs of Celebrated Female Smrreij^fis needs no
explanation. Chafaefen'sties of /(c^;;/<7/ deals with the female characters of
.Shakespeare's plays. She also prepared a work on Beauties of the Court
of Charles //.
In artistic lines her work began with translating a (icrman work on the
life and genius of Rul)ens. She was now discovering her special forte.
Next came A Ifandhook to the London Art (lallcrics, and a Companion to
the Private Calleries of Art in London.
This (l(\(l<»pnient is interesting. Having begun with writing bio-
graphical sketth<s and then having taken up descri[)tions of great works
of art, she combined the two and wrote Memoirs of the Early Italian
Painters and of the Proj^ress of Paint ini^ in Italy. Then came Memoirs
and Essays. an<l Sacred and Legendary Art.
369
KREDRIKA BREMER.
A. D. 1901-1865.
SWEDISH NOVELIST OF HOME LIFE.
(TTVREDRIKA was born in Finland, but when that country was annexed
-L to Russia, her father, a wealthy merchant, removed to Sweden with
his family. The daughter's education received careful attention.
After enjoying th6 best advantages Sweden could afford she was sent to
Paris and on her return became a teacher in an academy for girls in
Stockholm. She was a person of great mental vigor and her intense nature
began to express itself in writing — merely as an outlet for her pent-up
feelings — before she entered her teens.
Her first novel, The Neighbors, was translated into German, French,
Dutch, Russian, and English. This gives us an idea of the popularity of
the work. Some of her other books are. The Home, Life in Dalecarlia,
The Midnight Sun, The Homes of the Neuf World (an account of her
observations in America), England in i8^r (giving views of the coun-
try and people as she saw them during a residence there). Most of her
novels present pictures of home life in her own Scandinavia.
As a woman and a writer she was greatly beloved in many lands.
" She has brought the dim old Scandinavian world, that seemed com-
pletely hidden by the cloud of fable and curtain of time from the western
hemisphere, before us, with an enchanter's wand. Her little white hand
has gently led us up among primeval mountains covered witli eternal forests
of pine, and along the banks of deep lakes, where the blue waters have
slept since the creation. She has done more, she has led us 'over the
threshold of the Swede,' introduced us into the sanctuary of their cheerful
homes and made us friends with her friends."
After the death of her father, in 1830, she lived for some years in
Norway with a friend, after whose death she resolved to gratify a long-
repressed desire to travel. In autumn of 1849 she set out for America, and
after spending nearly two years here returned through England. The
admirable translations of her works by Mary Howitt secured for her a warm
and kindly reception in both America and England.
370
HARRIET L. MARTI NEAU.
A. D. 1802-1876.
ENGLISH AUTHORESS.
'py'ER ancestors were French and moved to England upon the revocation of
j^M the Edict of Nantes. Her education was as thorough as the times
® afforded for women. Hers was a strong character. While she had
earnestness, courage, and sincerity, she was self-willed, self-opinionated, and
self-conscious. She says of herself in her autobiography, that she was pos-
sessed of a temper '* downright devilish *' and had a '* capacity for jealousy
which was something frightful," at the age of four years.
She was the sixth child in a household of eight. It was a busy, hard-
working family. She was early afflicted with deafness, which increased with
years and her mind was much shut in.
She found it necessary to do something which could be performed apart
from others, and turned to study, which became a passion. Her father lost
his property and all were obliged to do something, not merely for an occu-
pation but for a livelihood.
1825-26 was a time of speculations, collapses, and crashes. The bitter
experiences of her family influenced her literary career. In this school of
experience she learned to write on the burning questions of State, and
especially political economy. Her experiences and vehement disposition
made these works mightily trenchant.
Eminent statesmen asked her to write on almost ever\' conceivable topic
connected witli legislation. Lord Brougham offered to collect evidence for
her Scn'rs on the Poor Laics and place it at her disposal. The Series was
successful beyond her dreams. She tells her experience of a visit into the
outer air for the t'lrst thorough holiday taken for nearly three years.
She came to the I'nited States on her completion of her Rji owlish Politi-
cal Talcs. ICverywhere she was graciously received, though her strong
anti-slavery utterances detracted from her pc^pularity in some places. But
this is to her honor.
She was impatient of applause and cared only to speak the truth with
the greatest possible force.
371
DOROTHEA L. DIX.
A. D. 1802-1887.
PHILANTHROPIST.
ONE of the most wonderful women of this or any other century. A
frail and overworked body, a gentle, loving disposition, butwitKa
will like steel, such was Dorothea Dix. She worked against apathy
and other fearful odds and she never failed but once.
She had no childhood, for the support and education of two younger
brothers devolved upon her. She opened a school for girls in Boston to
support herself and family. While burdened with the care of the school
she became interested in ameliorating the condition of the state convicts.
In 1833 she was prostrated by hemorrhages of the lungs, due to over-
work. She visited Europe and returned after a few years much improved
and ready for new undertakings in behalf of paupers, prisoners, and luna-
tics.
She taught a Sunday School class in the East Cambridge House of
Correction. She then visited the jail and found some insane persons con-
fined in unheated rooms. In order to correct the abuse she was obliged to
bring the matter into court.
Her soul was so stirred at the abuses she discovered elsewhere that she
visited every jail and almshouse in the state, giving careful study to the
condition of the insane.
Armed with a terrible array of facts, she petitioned the legislature " in
behalf of the insane paupers confined within the Commonwealth in cages,
closets, cellars, stalls, pens ; chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed
into obedience."
She was successful in Massachusetts, the abuses were to a large extent
corrected. This encouraged her to undertake reform in otlier states. New
Jersey was her next field, where by careful investigation and wise presenta-
tion she won victories for the insane and criminals.
Her record of less than four years' work was that of eighteen states
prisons, three hundred county jails and houses of correction, and more
than five hundred almshouses visited and investigated. Everywhere she
372
HENRI ETTE SONTAG.
A. U. 1806-1804.
GERMAN OPERA SINGER.
^ HIS gifted singer appeared on the stage at Frankfort when but five
Vi ^ years of age. She received the most careful training and appeared
T in both Cierman and Italian music. At the age of twenty-five she
easily outshone all other operatic stars of her own land.
When at the height of her career she married Count Rossi, an Italian
noble, and retired to private life. Her husband was Ambassador of Sardinia
at the Hague at the time of her marriage.
During her retirement she was noted for her princely charities and was
a great favorite at court.
Pecuniary re\erses and embarrassments came and she returned to her
profession.
Jenny Lind had achieved great success in America and Henriette decided
to visit these shores. She was enthusiastically received, and made a tour
of the United States and Mexico. In the midst of her triumphs in Mexico
she was attacked by the cholera and died.
Uorotliti'M I-. IJix continued.
met sights which were sickening and horrible, but, though weak in body
and at times sick, she bravely toiled on.
Miss Dix visited Halifax and Toronto, wrought reform in Scotland,
visited hospitals in Norway, Holland, Italy, Russia, and (irecce. She
awakened the slumbering moral sense of the people, and the treatment of
tlie inmates of asylums and |)risons was revolutionized.
At the outbreak of iht- civil war in America she gave herself to the
work of nursing in th<- army and was made chief of army nurses. It was
she who warn<(l President-elect Lincoln of his danger on the way to Wash-
ington. Slu (lied at Trenton Asylum after five years of suffering. The asylum
was offered lur as a rttreat and she lovingly called it her " firstborn child."
*' On no oth< r |)aj4c of tin- annals of purely merciful reform can be read such
a series of moral triumphs over apathy, ignorance, and cruel neglect."
373
LYDIA MARIA CHILD.
A. D. 1802-1880.
ANTI-SLAVERY ADVOCATE.
KV ER father, David Francis, was a baker in Medford, Mass. Miss Fran-
(q\ ^^^ showed a marked craving for books when quite young.
Her first novel, Hobomok, was occasioned by an article in the
North American Review in which the writer enthusiastically set forth the
adaptation of early New England history to the purposes of fiction. She
had never written for the press, but the thought seized her and she wrote
the first chapter of her novel the same day. In six weeks the story was
finished and upon being published was so well received that she wrote next
year The Rebels ; oi\ Boston Before the Revolution.
She next opened a private school in Watertown, Mass. , and about the
same time %X.7\x\^A Juvenile Miscellany, a children's magazine.
When twenty-six years of age she married David Lee Child, a Boston
lawyer. She wrote The Mother s Book, The GirV s Own Book, The His-
tory of Women, and Biographies of Good Wives.
She was now happily married, enjoyed a generous income, and was sur-
rounded by friends of high social standing. But a change came because of
herself and husband becoming identified with the anti-slavery movement.
The sale of her books fell off, subscriptions to her magazine were withdrawn,
and the homes of many former friends were no longer open to her.
But she had taken her position as a matter of conscience and no loss of
friends, fame, or fortune could cause her to turn back. She wrote and pub-
lished Ayi Appeal on Behalf of that Class of Americans Called Africaris.
From a quiet and remunerative literary life she was thus thrust into the
midst of a fierce fight.
In 1844 Mr. and Mrs., Child removed to New York and became joint
editors of The Anti-Slavery Standard. Mr. Child's health was poor and
much of the time the wife worked on bravely and ahiiost alone. One of
her biographers has said, "No man or woman of that period rendered
more substantial service to the cause of freedom or made such a great
renunciation to do it.'
374
IVIADAME DUDBVANT
(••OEORQE SAND").
A. D. 1804-1876.
FRENCH NOVELIST.
rHIS woman became the most celebrated French writer of her age in
the department of fiction. But her genius and celebrity cannot
hHnd our eyes to this, that she lived in the most pronounced con-
tempt for morality and purity, was mother of two illegitimate children, and
denounced the whole system of marriage.
Her father, Maurice Dupin, died when she was but four years of age and
she was left to the care of hrr grandmother, the Countess de Hover, who
was the illegitimate daughter of the famous Marshal Saxe, who in turn was
the illegitimate son of Augustus II., king of Poland ; so, while there was
royal blood in her veins, there was little occasion to boast of it.
After spending her early years with her grandmother, she piissed three
years in a convent, where she became so zealous that her teacher even
remonstrated with her. There then came a reaction with great despondency.
At eighteen she married M. Dudevant, an officer in the French army, a
man of modest fortune and good character but not brilliant. They lived
together lor nine years in matrimonial misery, when she fled to the society
of a lover. While li\ iiii^ with him, she wrote her first novel, hidiana.
Having h tl her h)\ cr, she went to Paris and wrote for a livelihocKi.
.She threw oft all woni.nily restraints and assumed the dress of a man.
Her novels, uhieli appeared in the Rcvm dts Ihux Mondts, proved
popular. Her Lvlia (it aled a sensation by its advocacy of infidelity and
social (lis<»r<ler.
.She wrote in all about >i.\ly novels and twenty plays, h'or more than
a (juarter of a ctnlury slie continued year by year to gladden the world by
some n«\v rreatiMii.
'• She has stayed in many camps, and lent her |)en to many causes, she
has had many friends anrl many loxers, but to one cause only has she
remained < on>taiU -the cause of human progress; and the only master in
whose service she has ne\er wearie<l is Art."
377
ELIZABETH B BROWNINQ.
A. D. 1809-1861.
ENGLISH POETESS.
yj^HE highest place among modern poetesses belongs to Mrs. Browning,
V ^ and she far outranks most of our modern poets. Her pure and lofty
T sentiment and intellectual power are inferior only to Tennyson.
She was born in London and was from infancy a delicate child. She was
naturally retiring and loved solitude. At fifteen she sustained an injury of
the spine which further weakened her physical powers. Being deprived of
the usual pursuits and pleasures of young people she gave herself to study
and began to write. She could see little of the world and so she found or
made a world of her own.
In 1839 she burst a blood vessel of the lungs and was removed to a
milder climate. Soon afterwards her favorite brother, with two other young
men, was drowned while sailing. These physical and mental shocks so
weakened her that for years she lived in a darkened room, visited only by
her family and a few intimate friends. Vet from that fairy hand came works
of power which made the world marvel. She settled down to her lot with
sweet resignation, in no wise questioning her Master's goodness and love.
Then came a change. Robert Browning had already won for himself a
name. He had learned to love the invalid poetess through her works and
sought her in marriage, to the amazement of her family and friends. He
believed that she need not be an invalid all her days. Love could win her
to health she had never known.
They were married and spent four years in Trance and Italy. When
they returned to England Mrs. Browning was a new creature. Hope,
Love, and Italy had wrought marvels. Theirs was as perfect a union as
the world often sees. Each had poetic brilliancy and power. Each had a
marked individuality. Each was the complement of the other.
Mrs. Browning possessed the unusual combination of a masculine under-
standing and a thoroughly feminine heart. She could treat social problems
in a masterly way and at the same time she could set forth the tenderest,
deepest sentiments of woman's heart.
378
NIARQARET FULLER OSSOLI.
A. D. 1810-1850.
AMERICAN AUTHORESS.
§ER father, Timothy Fuller, gave much personal attention to her edu-
cation. She proved a remarkable scholar, for at six years of age
she could read Latin and at eight read extensively in Shakespeare,
Cervantes, and Moliere. Being much by herself she became melancholy
and reserved and was given to freaks of passion.
She studied at Ciroton, Mass. , where her eccentricities were a trial to
her teachers and friends. I'pon her return home she began an extensive
course of studies, mastering the German and the chief authors in that
language.
In 1840 she became editor of the Dial, a quarterly journal. Ralph
Waldo Elmerson was one of her associates in the work. Woman in the
Nincteerith Century, written by Miss Fuller for this journal, was afterward
issued in lx)ok form.
In 1S44 she became connected with the New York Tribune. Her time
was chiefly given to reviews which were subsetiuently issued as a volume
entitled Papers on Art and Literature.
In 1847, having taken up her residence in Rome, she became the wife of
a Roman nobleman, the Marcjnis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. During the two
following years she saw stirring times in the "eternal city." In 1848
occurred the revolution and in 1849 the city was besieged by the F*rench.
She rendered good service as directress of one of the hospitals.
In 1850 hhe set her face toward her native land, accompanied by her
husband and little son. The voyage had a tragic ending. The barque was
driven ashore on Fire Inland beach. While the vessel was going to pieces,
Margaret sang little Angelo to sleep and her husband calmed the passen-
gers by |)rayer. .After twelv<- hours of suspense, some of the passengers
were sa\ed, but ()ssoli, wife, and child perished.
Hers was a strong character, a marked indi\ iduality. Her struggle and
solitary habits made her less winsome than some other writers, but her
works form a substantial contribution to American literature.
379
BLIZABETH C OASKELL.
A. D. 1810-1865.
ENGLISH NOVELIST OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE.
+-.-§^-+
'^ ER great work was Mary Barton ; a Tale of Manchester Life, The
^J book was to the factory people of England what Uncle Toni s CcU>in
became to the colored race in America. She was among the first to
get at the heart of the great multitude of factory operatives. Her portrayal
is pathetic and even painful, but she had to deal with a painful subject,
and she was true to life in her descriptions. Hard times, political agitation,
and strikes — all the great questions as between labor and capital are
brought out in this book, which appeared in 1848. The labor question is
not a new one. Mrs. Gaskell was a pioneer novelist in this line. We can-
not do better than to allow her to speak for herself. Note the sympathetic
heart and the keen observation in the following : —
** I had always felt a deep sympathy with the careworn men who looked
as if doomed to struggle through their lives in strange alternations between
work and want. A little manifestation of this sympathy, and a little atten-
tion to the expression of feelings on the part of some of the work people,
had laid open to me the hearts of the more thoughtful among them. I saw
that they were sore and irritable against the rich. Whether the bitter com-
plaints made were well founded or no, it is not for me to judge. It is
enough to say that this belief of the injustice and unkindness which they
endure from iheir fellow creatures, taints what might he resignation to
God's will and turns it to revenge in too many <»f the poor uneducated
factory workers of Manchester."
Mrs. Gaskell's husband was a I'nitarian clergyman of Mancliester.
Her other works were, in j)art, Moorland Cottaj^c, Xort/i and South,
Right at Last, Wives and Damrhters. Tlic tme that attracted greatest at-
tention was The Life of Charlotte Bronte. This was charmingly written
and furnishes many interesting incidents and details of the private life of
Miss Bronte, as the two women were close pers(^)nal friends.
In her novels she occasionally introduces the Lancashire dialect with
great effectiveness. As a portray er of the lights and shades of artisan life,
Mrs. Gaskell has few equals.
380
**KANNV KKRN"
(MRS. F»ARTON).
A. D. 1811 -ISTS.
AMERICAN AUTHORESS AND JOURNALIST.
'ARA PAYSON WILLIS was born in Portland, Me. In 1817 the
family removed to Boston, where her father, Nathaniel Willis, be-
came editor of the Boston Recorder and founder of The Youth's
Companion. Mrs. Willis, the mother, was a superior woman, and of her
the daughter said, '* All my brother's poetry, all the capacity for writing,
be it little or much, which I possess, came from her."
Miss Willis was educated at the school of Miss Catherine Beecher in
Hartford. Miss Harriet Beecher, afterwards Mrs. Stowe, was one of the
teachers. During this time, her brother, Nathaniel P. W^illis, a student
in Yale, began to attract attention as an author.
She married Charles H. Eldredge, cashier of the Merchants' National
Bank of Boston, and lived in ease and comfort. Three daughters were
born to them. But sorrow came. xMr. Eldredge and the eldest daughter
died and Mrs. Eldredge was obliged to gain a livelihood for herself and her
two remaining girls.
She wrote an essay for publication, but several publishers refused it%
At last one accepted it and gave her, as remuneration, fifty cents. Though
the outlook was dark she persisted and after a few months journals were
glad to get her writings at her own price.
A collection of her sketches was published in 1853 under the title of
Feni Leaves, the sale of which reached seventy thousand in a short time.
In 1856 she married James Parton' the author.
Mr. Bonner of the New 'S'ork Ledirer, recognizing the popularity of her
writings, engaged her to write an article each week for his journal. This
she continuid to do without interruption for fourteen years.
Mrs. Parton was always a sympathetic interpreter of childhood and
girlhood. .She was bright, witty, original, and frank. She hated cant,
pomp, aflectation, and snobbery. She was a stout champion of the poor,
the distressed, and toil-worn.
381
HARRIBT BEECHER STOWE.
A. D. 1812-1896.
AMERICAN AUTHORESS.
MRS. STOWE wrote many books, but by one book she is best known,
her Uncle Tom s Cabin. Probably no book except the Bible has
had so wide a sale. More than 500,000 copies were sold in this
country in ^\^ years. It has been translated into nearly every language of
Europe and into some Asiatic languages. The sale outside the United
States has probably reached half a million.
Harriet was the daughter of Rev. Lyman Beecher and was born in
Litchfield, Conn. Scott's Ballads and Arabian Nights were her favorite
books when but a child and no doubt these had much to do with the culti-
vation of her imagination.
At the age of fifteen she became assistant to her sister Catherine in the
female seminary at Hartford and continued teaching until the time of her
marriage to Prof. Calvin E. Stowe.
Professor Stowe was one of the faculty of Lane Theological Seminary at
Cincinnati, Ohio, of which Dr. Beecher had become president.
The slavery question was at the front, and the '* underground railroad"
was making it possible for many i)oor slaves to escape to Canada.
Professor Stowe' s house was one of the "stations" and Mrs. Stowe' s
acquaintance with the fugitives served as fuel for the fire which years
afterwards blazed out in Lhicle Toin s Cabin.
The slavery question was hotly debated by the students in the seminary,
until the trustees forbade its discussion and scores of students left. Soon
after the passage of " The Fugitive SIa\^ Law," Professor Stowe was called
to Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., and it was there that Mrs. Stowe
wrote her famous book.
It appeared first as a serial in The National Era, then in book form ;
and presses were kept running day and night to meet the demand.
Prince Albert, Earl of Shaftesbury, Macaulay, Dickens, and Kingsley
received gift copies and each wrote a letter of deep sympathy and praise. •
When Mrs. Stowe visited Europe the next year, people vied with each
382
LUISE MUHLBACH.
NIRS. KLARA. MXJLLBDR MUNDT.
A. D. 1814-1873.
GERMAN NOVELIST.
- — - .^•^i^)i^-i«# —
§ER husband, Theador Mundt, was for some years a teacher in the
University of Berlin, and afterward became professor of general
history and literature in Breslau, and then became director of the
library of the Berlin University. In politics he was a liberalist and often
gave offense. For many years he was an invalid, but the income from the
works written by his wife enabled them to live in comfort.
UiKler the pseudonym of " Luise Muhlbach," Mrs. Mundt produced
more than fifty novels, and her works comprise about one hundred volumes.
She was a pronounced advocate of woman's suffrage and other radical
changes in the status of woman. In politics, she was, like her husband, an
extreme liberalist and actively participated in several reform movements.
Her fame rests chiefly upon her historical romances. In this field she
wielded a ready pen. Most of these works are as well known in England
and America as in (iermany. Among the best known are : Frederick the
Ci rent and His Court, Joseph II. and His Court, The Merchant of Berlin ^
Louisa of Prussia and Her Times, Marie Antoinette and Her Son,
Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia, Queen Hortense, The limpress Jose-
phine, (ioethe and Schiller, Mohammed Ali and His House^ also The
Thirty )'rars War, and limperor William.
Hrr works brouj^ht her a fortune which was well earned and she was
enabled to build a handsome residence in Berlin, which became the meeting
place of littrary and social leaders.
Htirriet M».'c'ol it.'r Stowe continued.
other to do her honor, and more than half a million women signed a memo-
rial addressed to lu-r.
Mrs. Stowr w rotr many other books. We name a few. The Minis-
ter s Wooiui:;, Pearl of Orr s Island, Oldto7cn P^olks, My Wife and I, We
and Our Xeit^hbors, Footsteps of the Master, Bible Heroines, and Key to
Uncle Tom\s Calu'fi.
383
CHARLOTTE GUSHMAN.
A. I>. 1816-1876.
AMERICAN ACTRESS.
WHEN she was but twelve years of age her father became bankrupt
and it was necessary for her to contribute to the family sup-
port. She possessed a contralto voice of unusual quality and
power. For some time she sang in church choirs, and when Mrs. Wood
came to Boston in search for a contralto voice she selected Miss Cushman.-
After singing in the Tremont Theater she went to New Orleans to sing in
an opera there, but her voice failed, partly through the change of climate
and partly through seeking to transform her voice into a soprano.
This proved a crisis in her life. She was without funds and must earn
her living. She had previously shown some dramatic talent and was asked
to take the part of Lady Macbeth. This she did with great success in the
principal New Orleans theater.
Her next experience was in New York. She accepted a three years
engagement at the Bowery Theater. She was without wardrobe, but the
manager procured this, arranging to deduct five dollars a week from her
wages. Her mother was keeping a boarding house in Boston. She in-
duced her to come to New York, bringing the two sons. For the elder,
Charlotte secured employment. So the household was together again.
But another calamity came. She was prostrated for several weeks with
rheumatic fever and soon after she recovered the theater was burned, her
wardrobe was destroyed, and her three years engagement was at an end.
Not discouraged she went to Albany and had excellent success.
When she was but twenty-six she took the management of a theater
in Philadelphia and at the same time acted leading parts.
A few years later she went to Europe and won success in London. She
summoned her family to her and they lived happily in a cottage at Bays-
water. Her sister Susan studied with her. Charlotte and Susan appeared
as *' Romeo and Juliet" at the Haymarket Theater. When she returned
to America she had won a distinguished place in the dramatic world and was
soon the possessor of a comfortable fortune.
384
CHARLOTTE BRONTE.
A. D. 1816-185ff.
ENGLISH NOVELIST.
MLSS BRONTE is bv^st known by her novel Jane Eyre, Some of the
sufferings depicted in the book are records of her own experiences.
The life of Miss Bronte is of deep and pathetic interest.
Her father was a poor Mnjjflish clergyman, eccentric and unlovely.
Charlotte was born at Hartshead, near Leeds, but the family subsecjuently
moved tt) Haworlh. The parsonaj^c* was " bleak and uncomfortable, alow,
oblonj«; stone building standinj^ at the top of the stragg^ling village on a steep
hill, without the slielter of a tree, with the churchyard pressing down on it
on both sides, and behind, a long tract of wild moors.''
By the father's direction the children were fed on vegetable diet and
clothed in coarse clothes to make them hardy and prevent their becoming
proud. They wen* far from hardy : on the ccmtrary, they were small, fee-
ble, antl stunted in growtii. The mother died when they were all young,
and the children were mostly left to themselves.
Four of the j^irls were sent away to school, Charlotte among them.
The food wa^ poor and insufficient and they were treated with inhuman
severity. * ' .Miss S( ratchhard ' " in Jauc I\yrc is a reprotluction of the manager
of tin- school. .\ lexer broke out and the girls returned home, but two of
them dietl a^ a result of the treatment and the sickness contracted at the
school.
When nineteen ye.irs of ai^e, C^harlotte became a teache; , but owing to
|)oor health sju- was nbljotd to i^i\c it up. She next look a situation as a
governes>. but the people treated her harshly and this was abandoned.
.She <leternuue<l to establish a private scho()l with her sisters Kmily and
Anne. Charlotte and Lmilv went to Brussels to fit themselves. At the
end of six month-^ they wen* employed in the school they were attending,
but at a pitilnlly small salary.
On their return they att<in|)ted to gather pupils, but none came. They
next tried literary work ; in fact. th<*y had written much from childhood up.
387
CHARLOTTE BRONTE.
They issued a volume of poems but it met with little success. Their next
venture was in prose tales. The productions were, The Professor, by
Charlotte; Wuthering Heights, by Emily; and Agnes Grey hy Anne.
Each wrote under an assumed name. While those of Emily and Anne
were accepted, Charlotte's was everywhere rejected and was not published
until after her death.
In the face of all this failure and discouragement, Charlotte proceeded
to write y^w^ ZTv/'^. It met with immediate and immense success. Few
works of an unknown author have been received with such sudden and
general acclamation. It was translated into most of the languages of
Europe, and was put on the stage in England and Germany under the
title of The Orphan of Lowood. She next wrote Shir/eyyhuX. it was much
inferior to Jane Eyre, Her third novel was Viiiette, which is a picture of
life as she saw it in Brussels. This proved exceedingly popular. It pro-
ceeded slowly to completion as the result of long interruptions from failing
health.
Her works became a passport to the highest literary circles of London
and the continent, and she met most of the prominent writers of the
time. But she was of a retiring and sensitive disposition, largely the result
of a sad childhood, so that notoriety and attention were a source of pain
and she returned to her home
Rev. Arthur Nicholls, who was her father's curate, desired to marry
her, but the father objected. She was now past thirty-four years of age,
and Mr. Nicholls resigned. In the year following the father changed his
mind and they were married.
For less than one year she knew the happiness of true home life, though
they lived in the bleak old parsonage. But her health, like that of her
sisters, had been poor for many years and she soon followed them. Early
hardships had left a physical blight on each of them. Her death occurred
March 31, 1855.
After her death her rejected tale, The Professor, was published. She
had what Goethe calls the true secret of poetic genius.
388
LUCY STONE.
A. D. 1818-1893.
FROM FARM TO COLLEGE AND BEYOND.
.}e;/-5-w*ib<- -----
@N a rocky farm in West Brookfield, Mass., Lucy Stone was bom.
She was the eighth child. The mother milked eight cows the night
before Lucy was born. When it was known that the babe was a
girl the mother exclaimed, "Oh dear! I am so sorry it is a girl. A
woman's life is so hard.'* But Lucy's life was devoted to making woman's
life easier.
Her own lot was one of toil from childhood. She had to perform the
usual duties of a farmer's daughter, but all the time she was thinking and
questioning. Her soul rebelled at the unequal lot of woman in point of
education and wages.
Her two brothers were helped to go to college. Lucy desired to do the
same. Her father exclaimed, **Is the child crazy?** To her he said,
" Your mother only learned to read, write, and cipher ; if that was enough
for her it should be enough for you.'*
This did not discourage her, it only gave her a grim determination to
win the way. She 7cou/d i^^o to college. She picked berries and laid by
the money earned in the h<^t sini. She gathered chestnuts and with the
money boujL^ht books. She was able after a time to teach school, at first
for one dollar per week. When at last she earned sixteen dollars per
month, it was thouji^ht remarkable f<^r a woman. When her brother was
sick she took his school for a time. His wages were thirty dollars per
month, but the committee gave her but sixteen because it " was enough for
a woman." These things were bitterness to her heart but they nerved her
for the struggle.
At twenty- five she had earned money enough to enter Oberlin College,
which was the only college in the land to admit women at that time. She
earned her way in part by tutoring and doing housework. In the four
years cour-e >he had l)nt one new dress and that was calico.
Kven at ( )l)erlin she found women were not treated as ecpials of men.
Her work was so excellent that she was awarded one of the commencement
389
LUCY STONE.
honors, but was informed that her essay would be read by one :>f the pn)-
fessors, as it was not considered proper for a woman to read or speak in
public. With her uncompromising spirit she declined to prepare the essay.
She would not have, honors which were at the same time a source of
humiliation. When Oberlin celebrated its semi-centennial forty years
after Lucy Stone graduated, she was one of the honored speakers.
Oberlin was a friend of the slave and Lucy became a pronounced aboli-
tionist. In her life work for the slave and woman, she encountered opposi-
tion and even insults. Upon one occasion she was to speak in Maiden.
The Congregational minister gave notice that **A hen will undertake to
crow like a cock at the town hall this afternoon. Anybody who wants to
hear that kind of music will of course attend."
She was sometimes compelled to meet not merely ridicule, but mob
violence. At one time when she and Stephen Foster were holding an anti-
slavery meeting, Mr. Foster was attacked and his coat torn from his back.
Lucy Stone got the mastery of the mob by her power of intellect and will,
so that before the meeting closed a collection of twenty dollars was taken
and given to Mr. Foster to pay for a new coat.
She worked for woman suffrage in Colorado and afterwards, in 1893, it
bore fruit in a constitutional amendment giving woman the same rights as
men in exercising the election franchise.
Many sought her hand in marriage, but in vain. Mr. Henry B. Black-
well v^s, however, at last successful. He had been a worker in the anti-
slavery cause and devotedly loved this kindred spirit. They were married
in 1855, when Lucy was thirty-seven years old. They were agreed that she
should retain her maiden name and be known i^imply as Lucy Stone.
Their wedded life was one of happy co-operation.
** As a pioneer in the movement for the legal and political elevation of
woman, she lived through ridicule, obloquy, and even persecution, until at
last she was known and reverenced as the heroine of a great, beneficent, and
actually accomplished revolution." Lucy Stone had in her nature a rare
combination of strength and sweetness. The strength had been devel-
oped in the struggle for an education. The sweetness was inherited from
the toiling but always sympathetic mother.
390
IVIARIA MITCHELL.
A. I>. 1818-1889.
PIONEER WOMAN ASTRONOMER.
{N the field of science Miss Mitchell is the American pioneer. Hundreds
of women have in recent years distinguished themselves in scientific
pursuits, but we are always interested in pioneers.
For patient, plodding, persistent work, few have surpassed Maria
Mitchell. She was born in Nantucket, and, as the land has few attractions,
the people are natural obserxers of sea and sky. Maria was one of them.
Again, her father was for years engaged in scientific pursuits in connection
with his work of teaching. He was a man of superior intellect but of
meager income. He established a small observatory and earned one hun-
dred dollars per year by astronomical work for the United States Coast
Survey.
Maria looked back upon her girlhood days as * * an endless washing of
dishes," and yet she managed to study a great deal. She was for many
years librarian of the little Nantucket Athenaeum at a salary of one hundred
dollars per year. Of this she was able to lay aside a portion for future
studies.
So she toiled on, studying and observing in astronomical lines. When
she was nearly thirty years of age, fame came to her as a result of her
work. She discovered a telescopic comet. Her father communicated the
discovery to Professor Bond of Cambridge. Kdward Everett, president of
Harvard College, learned that the King of Denmark had offered a gold
medal for such a discovery and was instrumental in securing it for Miss
Mitchell.
She sul)se([uently visited Kurope and was well received by such leading
scientists as Sedgwick, Challis, Adams, Herschel, and Arnott, as well as
by many of the literary leaders. Her best years were given as professor of
astronomy in X'assar (College, where she rendered most acceptable service.
Her father was with her and his closing years were gladdened by seeing
his daughter an honored teacher of the science of astronomy, the first les-
son in which she had received from him.
391
ALICE AND PHOEBE GARY.
A. D. 18201871 ; 1824-1871.
THE LITERARY SISTERS.
JHOHI
/ I \ HEIR early years were spent at Miami \'alley, near Cincinnati, Ohio.
J- They both possessed marked literary tastes and ability, and began
writing for the press while in their teens.
Their mother died when Alice was but eleven, and their stepmother
had no sympathy with their literary' aspirations. Candles were refused
them after the day's work was done and they used a saucer of lard with a
rag for a wick, and by this light they studied and wrote.
Alice received no financial compensation for her work for the first ten
years. She wrote for the love of it — we may say, from an overflowing
heart.
Alice wrote both prose and poetry. Phoebe gave her attention almost
entirely to poetry, having little taste for prose productions.
The sisters lived in a house by themselves for some years, the father
and stepmother occupying another residence.
In 1852, having received some means of their own, the sisters removed
to New York city, where their home became the center of a choice group
of people interested in literature and art. Here were held receptions each
week, which became deservedly popular.
They died in the same year, and but a few months apart. Alice was an
invalid during her last years and the care of the household devolved upon
Phoebe. She was thus deprived of much time which would othenvise have
been given to literary work and would have added to her fame.
Alice wrote Cloirnwok, or Recollections of our Xei}rhhorhood in the West,
Hagar, a Story of To-day^ Married, not Mated, Pictures of Country Life,
Ballads, Lyrics, and Hymns. Her characters are realistic and her descrip-
tions of domestic life are charming.
Phoebe is known for her poem which begins One swert/y solemn thought
comes to me o" er and d er. Poems of Faith, Hope, and Loir, and other pro-
ductions which were published in a volume with those of her sister, before
their removal to New York.
392
"GEORGE ELIOT"
(MARIAN KVANS).
A. D. 1820.1880.
THE GREATEST ENGLISH WOMAN NOVELIST.
^^W NK comes to the consideration of this woman of j^^enius with a feeling
\^J i»kin to sadness. There is a struggle between respect for her
^ ability and contempt for her conduct.
Marian K\ans was born of hmnble parents, who were, nevertheless, of
sterling worth and who sought for their daughter educational advantages
of which they had been deprived. They were religious people and sent
Marian to a school kept by the Misses Franklin, who were devout Metho-
dists. She was early engaged in Sunday school and other religious work.
L'nder more advanced teachers she studied Latin, Greek, Italian,
French, and German ; she also became a pianist of much skill.
Her abilities brought her into accjuaintance with many eminent people,
among them several of liberal, rationalistic, and even atheistic views,
"clever thinkers," learned doubters, dreamy theorists, but arrogant, dis-
contented, and cUfiant.
Mr. Lewes was one <^f this number. To him she became attached and,
although he had a wife living, Marian Kvans lived with him for twenty
years. They were both people of genius and their tastes were congenial,
but these things can never excuse the ilisrei»ard and defiance of (iod's laws.
After the death of Mr. Lewes, she, being fifty-nine years old, married
Mr. John Walter Cross, who was much younger than herself.
We may sometimes wish we had never known the private life of Marian
Lv.ms, but it i.-^ best that we should knf)w. No doubt she is one of the
greatest authors of this great literary century.
Her chief \\<»rk> are Adiun /udc, The Mill on thr hloss, Silas Marnc>\
Romola, lulix Holt, Middltmanh, Panicl Prronda, and Thtophrastus
Such.
George l\li(»l i^ an artist in delineatini^ character in its development.
Too ofien il i«. a t|«.\vn\vanl de\<-loj)ment ; illicit lo\ e i> foimd in nearly all
her works wwA ytMuig people will hanlly l>e profited by reading them.
31#3
JENNY LINE)
(OOLDSCHMIDT).
A. D. 1821-1S87.
THE WORLD'S SWEETEST SINGER.
M^^K:^
HE was born in Stockholm and was the daughter of a teacher of
languages.
She is said to have been able at three years of age to repeat a
song which she had heard but once. At ten years of age she sang children
parts on the Stockholm stage. After two years her upper notes lost their
sweetness, and for four years she was in retirement. This time was devoted
to the study of instrumental music and composition.
At the end of the period her voice had recovered its power and purity
in every note of its register of two and one half octaves. For a year and a
half she was the star of the Stockholm opera.
She next gave a series of concerts to obtain means to go to Paris for
study, but the French teacher did not appreciate her powers and she re-
turned to her native city.
In 1844, being then twenty- three years of age, she went to Dresden and
when Queen Victoria visited that city the following year, she sang in the
f^tes. This opened the way to astonishing success in other German cities.
In 1847 she went to London and was enthusiastically received. Here
she sang for the first time in oratorio.
Jenny Lind visited America in 1850. V. T. Barnum was instrumental
in her coming to. the country, and by his i)ower as an advertiser he roused
the wildest enthusiasm. Tickets sold for fabulous prices in New York.
But she did not disappoint the wildest expectation.
She subsequently married Mr. Otto Goldschmidt of Boston, musician
and conductor. She appeared on the stage only at intervals after her
marriage and usually at concerts given for charital)lc purposes. In this
work she was deeply interested, and we may well add to her titlt! of singer
that of philanthropist. ^
Her later years were spent in London, where she died in 1887. Her
life and songs are a sweet memory.
304
MADAM BLAVATSKY.
A. I>. 1820-1891.
FOUNDER OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
¥HIS remarkable woman was a Russian by birth, both her father and
her grandfather having been officers in the Russian army. Her
remarkable attainments as a linguist are seen in this, that she could
speak forty languages and dialects. At the age of sixteen she married a
husband of sixty but lived with him only three months.
After some time spent at the home of her father, Col. Peter Hahn, she
started on extensive travels which continued for ten years before she saw
her home again. She had a great thirst for unusual and out-of-the-way
knowledge. She even visited the Voodoos, a sect of negroes in New
Orleans who were reputed to be possessed of magical skill. She visited
Japan and India and sought to penetrate into Thibet. After various wan-
derings in Asia and Europe, she returned to her home in Russia. During
her absence she became a Buddhist.
She at one time sustained a fracture of the spine by being thrown from
a horse and there resulted certain mental disturbances which greatly
puzzled the attending physicians. For a year and a half she lived a com-
plete dual existence.
After her recovery she spent several years in various parts of Europe,
and had many strange experiences. Once she sailed on a ship loaded with
gunpowder. The ship was l)l()wn up and Madam was one of the very few
who were saved. She traveled in Africa and sought to investigate Spirit-
ualism. .She came again to America and with Colonel Olcott established
the *' Theosophical Society."
Among her hooks is /s/s I ^nveilcd. She at one time edited a maga-
zine called lAicifcr. the Liirht-hrinfrcr. Altogether, she is one of the
strange characters of history. One writer has said, *' There was a Titanic
display of strengtli in everything she did. The storms that raged in her
were cyclones." Her Con/essiou rings with the mingled curses and mad
laughter of a crazy mariner scuttling his own ship, and yet she could be as
tender as a mother.
395
LUCY LARCOM.
A. I>. 1826-1893.
MILL GIRL, TEACHER, AND POETESS.
^^^^--^i^
SER birthplace was Beverly, Mass. , by the sea. She was next to the
youngest of eight sisters. Her father died when she was quite
young, and the mother moved to Lowell, which was fast becoming
a great mill town.
Here Mrs. Larcom kept a boarding house for the mill girls, her own
daughters being among the operatives. But that was a home, and quite
unlike the mill-town boarding house of to-day.
When Lucy was still quite young, she entered one of the mills as a
**dof[er," that is, taking off empty bobbins and putting on full ones.
She had learned to love good books before coming to Lowell, and this
taste she cultivated as there was opportunity.
Some kind of a reading and literary club was formed among the mill
girls and several of them wrote papers to be read at their meetings. The
poet Whittier was then editing a paper in Lowell, and became interested in
these young women who were seeking self-improvement.
When about twenty years of age she accompanied a married sister to
Illinois, and taught school in a vacated log building in a two mile neighbor-
hood. She received forty dollars for three months' work. The commit-
teeman remarked as he paid her, "That's a lot o' money to pay a young
woman for three months' teachin*.*'
She was enabled to attend the Monticello Female Seminary for three
years and then went back to her beloved Beverly. After teaching private
classes for a few years, she was called to a position in Wheaton Female
Seminary, where she taught for six years with great success.
The strain upon her health was too great and she turned to literary
work. For some time she edited Oi^r Young Folks. She also wrote for
many of the leading periodicals.
She was a poetess of friendship and nature. Her girlhood days at Bev-
erly, with its seaside and roadsides, largely influenced the substance and
style of her writing.
30C
DINAH IVIARIA IVIULOCK
(PVIRS. CRAIJS:).
A. D. 1826-1887.
AUTHOR OF JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN.
'HE was dauji^hter of a clergyman of the Ustahlished Church and was
born in Straffordshire.
^ Her first novel, The Ogilvies, was an immediate success and gave
Miss Mulock a reputation for which others are often obliged to serve a long
apprenticeship. The subtle delineation of character and the lifelike scenes
show a mature mind and great skill. The Head of the Family is a story of
Scottish life of the middle class. Johyi Halifax is perhaps her greatest
work. It is, at least, the best known. It is a noble story of English domes-
tic life, and passed through more than a score of editions within a few years.
Among her other works of fiction are, Mistress and Afaid^ Christian! s
Mistake, Hannah, and The Ubmans Kingdom, We should mention as
specimens of her miscellaneous works, A Woman' s Thoughts about Women,
Sermons Out of Church, and her numerous children's books.
Miss Mulock became the wife of Mr. George Lillie Craik, author and
publisher, who wrote 'The Pursuit of h'noicledge under Difficulties, in sev-
eral volumes. One volume of this work related exclusively to women.
He contributed to the famous Penny Cyclopaedia and wrote several works
on the History of the English Language and English Literature.
Mrs. Craik, as a teacher of high moral qualities and true nobility of char-
acter, is probably surpassed by no modern writer of fiction. It has been
well said that her mission was to "show how the trials, perplexities, joys,
sorrows, labors, and successes of life deepen or wither the character accord-
ing to the inward bent — how continued insincerity gradually darkens and
corrupts the life springs of the mind — and how every event, adverse or
fortunate, tends to ^trcnLjthcn and expand a high mind, and to break the
springs <»f a seltish or e\en merely weak and self-indulgent nature."
So -Mrs. Craik wrote with a j)urp()se, and had at her command
eloquence, patho>. and genial humor to bring to the hearts of her readers
some of life's greatest lessons.
399
ROSA BON H EUR.
A. I>. 1828-1899.
THE EMINENT ANIMAL PAINTER.
5H0HJ —
HE ** Horse Fair*' is, to Americans, Rosa Bonheur's best known paint-
ing. It was produced when she was thirty-one years of age. It
T was exhibited in the French Salon and sold for $8,000. Cornelius
Vanderbilt paid $55,500 for it and by him it was presented to the Metro-
politan Museum of Arts, New York.
Her father, Raymond Bonheur, was an artist and her first teacher.
Friends opposed her devoting her energies to painting, on the ground
that the field offered little opportunity or reward for the talents of woman.
Her career and the hundreds of women who to-day use brush and palette
are a sufficient answer.
Her first work was copying pictures in the Louvre, to win bread. But
her father believed that more attention should be given to painting from
life, and this led to her becoming a great painter of animals and landscapes.
She early adopted masculine attire. There was no place for the study
of animals except in stables and slaughter houses. Dressed as a l)oy she
was free to <!ome and go without attracting attention. She then found the
dress of a man so much more conxenicnt than that of a woman, that she
continued its use.
She was the first woman in France to be decorated witli the cross of the
Legion of Honor. Her fame became international and all nations had a
feeling of ownership in her. At the time of the siege of Paris Emperor
Frederick ordered her residence to be spared. " Don't touch a cabbage
of that garden," was his order, and her garden and studio were protected
from Ciermans and all outsiders.
No one but^R lover of animals and who had made animal life a study
could interpret to us animal life as has Rosa Bonheur. ' * Weaning the Calves"
is full of dumb brute pathos ; " Deer in the Forest Twilight " almost makes
us hold our breath lest we break the stillness ; " Plowing in Xivernais '* is a
rural scene of quiet vigor. In the foreground is the pKnvman and six noble
oxen breaking up the refractory soil. But the " Horse Fair" quickens our
400
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
A. D. 1830-1894.
POETESS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.
— »— il— *-•
/ I \HIS woman, noted for her sweet spiritual poetry, was the daughter of
-I- Gal)riele Rossetti, an Italian patriot, who took refuge in England
from the troubles of his native land. He was made professor of
Italian in King's College. He wrote a commentary on Dante to show that
the In/erno was chiefly political and anti-papal and that Beatrice was a
symbolic personage.
Christina was born in London. When quite young her father fell ill
and she bravely helped support the family by teaching. She was deeply
religious and gave much time to church work when the circumstances of the
family were easier.
Some of her productions are, Goblin Market, Prince's Progress,
Speaking Likcpiess, Annus Domini, a Prayer for Each Day of the Year
Founded on a Text of Holy Scripture, Seek and Find, Called to be Saints,
and Time Flies.
A disappointment in love cast a shadow of melancholy over much of her
writing. She was for many years an invalid and died of cancer.
In artistic construction and purity of diction she surpasses Mrs. Brown-
ing, with whom she has sometimes been compared.
Ros» Hoiilii-^t-ir ooniinueil.
pulse as wt' hear as well as see the tread and j)rancing of the mighty Norman
stallions.
During Iht summer study in the country at one time, the simple peas-
ants, never having strn an artist at work, denounced her as a witch and
even attai krd Irt with stones and other missiles.
lunprrss luit^enir became deeply interested in this wonderful painter,
and was instrumental in havmg the cross of the ** Legion of Honor*' con-
ferred upon luT. In fact the empress went to tlie studio in person and
fastened the cross upon the masculine blouse of the painter.
** Her canvases li\e with robust, real, vivid life." They hold us with a
power we cannot analyze, but one great element is the heart that is in them.
401
MRS. CATHERINE BOOTH.
A. D. 1829-1890.
"MOTHER OF THE SALVATION ARMY."
WHEN but twelve years of age, Catherine Mumford became secre-
tary of a little temperance society, was a bright and earnest
talker, and even wrote articles for publication. The young heart
was always on the side of the weak and unfortunate. One day, while play-
ing on the street, she saw a man dragged to jail by an unfeeling officer ;
a crowd of rough boys and men was following with shouts and jeers. Lit-
tle Catherine left her play and walked beside the prisoner to the jail.
She showed also great sympathy for suffering dumb beasts. It often
happened that seeing in the field a half-fed horse she would buy some grain
and then at evening carry it to the poor animal.
She raised money for sending the gospel to foreign lands and even
denied herself sugar in order to contribute to missions. As a girl she was
sickly, having a disease of the spine, and seemed likely to die of consump-
tion, but by going to the seashore she regained her health in a measure.
Upon her return to London she met William Booth, a young Wesleyan
preacher, whose father had once been wealthy, but had died, leaving his
family to struggle for a living. The young man was working as an ap-
prentice while preaching. Though they were both poor, they joined heart
and hand for soul saving and the uplifting of humanity.
William became a circuit j)reachcr in a district some thirty miles in ex-
tent. Later he became assistant pastor in a London church. He was very
successful as an evangelist and many calls came for him to speak in different
parts of England.
When he was but twenty-seven he was ordered by the conference to
give up evangelistic work and take a small charge. But while this may
have been done partly through jealousy, it i)roved a good school for Mrs.
Booth. Here she began to conduct classes and speak on temperance.
The next settlement was in a place of fifty thousand people. The little
church numbered less than a hundred members, and about that number
met on Sunday evenings. But soon the place of worship was crowded
402
MRS. CATHERINK BOOTH.
with nearly two thousand people. The chapel came to be known as the
* * Converting Shop. * '
The stories of Mrs. Booth's ministrations to the poor and intemperate
are both pathetic and thrilling. She was of a sensitive, shrinking disposi-
tion and public speaking was a source of great dread, but feeling that God
had laid this upon hiT, she calmly responded, and there was given her a
power o\er the s<nils of people that was manifestly supernatural. Hun-
dreds were soon converted under her speaking. Her husband's health
failed and she was constrained to take his place, which she did, and was
greatly blessed. Calls canu? for her as well as for her husband to hold
evangelistic meetings, but he was opposed by the conference to which he
belonged. At last, husband and wife decided that it was his duty to
resign from the conference and be free to go where (iod might call him.
He was sunnnoned to Corinvall, where for eighteen months they worked
among miners, fishermen, and all (lasses, with marvelous success. About
one thousand professed con\ersion. •
The beginnings of what became the Salvation Army work were had in
the slums of London, where Mr. and Mrs. Hooth held tent meetings and
marched through the streets to advertise the meetings. Those were dark
days, they were without means of supj)ort, but (iod raised them up a friend
in Samuel Morley, a member of Parliament.
Mrs. Booth became a wonderfully effective preacher. A well known
publisher offered to publish her sermons and give her the profits, and some
wealtiiy men offered to build her a cluirch similar to Spurgeon's. All these
ofTers she declined, and with her husband endured the abuse and violence
of the degraded people whom th(*y were conunissioned to seek to save and
the flights and sneers of tlu' " respectable."
They passed through a veritable baptism f)f fire, but to-day they are
seen to be the luroir pi(»n(ers of a great world-wide movement for evangeliz-
ing and elevating the neji^lec^ted thousands of our great cities.
9^^{^0&^
403
HELEN HUNT JACKSON.
A. D. 1831-1885.
CHAMPION OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN.
T"^fHE champion of the Indian, as was Mrs. Stowe of the n^ro, her
® I fe books A Centur}' of Dishonor zxi^ Ramona should rank with Uncie
Tom's Cabin.
In her earlier years Mrs. Jackson wrote poetry, which was the outflow of
deep sympathetic thought on the problem of life's trials and temptations.
Her verses were strong and noble : she was too much in earnest to give at-
tention to mere prettiness of versification.
She next wrote Bits of Travel, which reveals another side of her nature.
With genial humor and subdued pathos she paints human nature. There
is nothing sour or cynical in her sketches. The tone is both helpful and
healthful.
As a keen and sympathetic obser\er her attention was attracted by the
treatment our American Indians received at the hands of government
agents. But her nature was well balanced. She first made a painstaking
study of the situation. She kept feeling in abeyance and searched for
facts. When at last she was fully equipped for htr work she took up the
pen in defense of the wronged Indian. She was in pour health. A fatal
disease had fastened itself upon her. Tlie consciousness of this led her to
write with almost desperate haste. A CcntKry of Dishonor appeared.
Most elocjuently and passionately did she pkad for a change from the
base, selfish j)olicy, to a treatment characterized by humanity and justice.
Her next step ( and she felt that the time was short ) was to cast her
materials in the form of fiction to reach a wider circle of readers. She
wrote Ramojia, which was her expiring and supreme effort. It was in
every way a noble book and will give the author lasting fame.
Ramona appeared first as a serial in the Christian I 'nion, because, as
one writer says, " She wrote at white heat and could not wait for the longer
delays of a monthly magazine.
Mrs. Jackson, whose maiden name was Fiske, was horn in Amherst,
Mass., October i8, 1831, and married Captain Hunt in 1852. She became
404
JEAN INQELOW.
A. 1>. 1830-1897.
POPULAR ENGLISH POETESS.
JEAN INGELOW was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, England, in 1820,
aTid died in July, 1897.
Her father was a banker and a man of superior intelligence.
Her mother was of Scotch descent. Jean was a shy, retiring girl and at-
tracted no attention until she was over thirty years of age. She then pub-
lished a volume of poems which in her quiet way she had been preparing
for some years. Their merit was at once recognized and the authoress
became famous.
Three poems in thisfirst volume are especially noteworthy : ** Divided,'*
" High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire " and ** Songs of Seven." The
last named consists of seven poems portraying seven epochs in the life of
woman.
Having been brought to public notice and there being demand for her
work, she wrote among others, Studies /or Stories, Poor Matt, A Sister's
Rye- 1 (ours. The Monitions of the I'nseen, and Poems of Love and
Childhood.
Within ten years aftt^ she came into public notice the sale of her poems
in Americ.i, alone, reached 93,(:kx) and her j)rose works a sale of 35,000.
Miss Ingelow niadr London her home after becoming a recognized
authorc^ss and, for several years, gave three times per wt-ek a "Copyright
DinntT " to twt'hf needy persons who had reerntly come from the hospi-
tals. Thi> iini(iuc charity was a fitting channel for the expenditure of a
part of lur income from her books.
a contril^ntoi to niai^a/incs and periodicals, writing under the signature of
" H. H. * Ibr death o( currcd in San Francisco, August 12. 1885, while
^he wa^ examining into th<- C(»nditi(»n of the California Indians as a special
government c< )nnnissioner.
405
AMELIA B. EDW^ARDS.
A.D. 1831-1892.
ENGLISH NOVELIST AND EGYPTOLOGIST.
JjxOR scholarship and variety of accomplishments Miss Edwards has had
J- few equals in the centur}-. She held the degrees of L. H.D. and
LL. D., was a member of the "Biblical Archeological Society,'* of
the '* Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies," of the "Oriental
Congress/' and was secretary of the *' Egypt Exploration Eund."
Miss Edwards was born in London. Her father was an army officer and
her mother was of famous family. Her education was received mainly at
home under the instruction of her mother and special tutors.
At the age of seven she wrote a })oem entitled The Knij^hts of Old^
which was published in a weekly journal. Eor seven years she continued
to write for the press. She then turned to music and composed several
acceptable pieces. Later she turned again to literature and decided to make
it her profession. Among her numerous novels are. The Ladder of Life,
Haifa Million of Mo7ie\\ and Lord Breckenbur^. The last named passed
through fifteen editions. •
.She came to be known chietiy as an Egyptologist and wrote, A Thou-
sand Miles up the Xih\ Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers. .She translated
Maspero's liiryptian Areheoloi>\\ and wrote for the Encydopa-dia Britannica
on Egyptology.
Her books of travel are scholarly and yet popular. She has digested and
presented a vast amount of archaological information antl has rendered a
notable service to the world (»f non-tethnical readers. Her books on
Egvptology are illustrated by sketches made- l)y htrsi^lf, and are written in
a style which makes them as fascinating as fiction.
In 18S9 Miss Edwards lectured in the I'nited .St.ites. ( )ne who heard
her savs, " Her rare and \olnniinoiis Itarning, hrr (juict gnux- and perfect
naturalness, her dainty tonclies of humor, ( harnu-d and imj^rt^sscd one that
she well tilled her own drscription of an anti(juariaii, — ' one possessing in-
domitable courage and will, unswerving |)atience and energy, and an im-
pregnable constitution, besides thehneof disco\ering unrevealed history.' "
40G
/jjcy h^ejbb /fsy^S' /{m€ha <B,EM*^<s r<i s •
LUCV WEBB HAYES.
A. I>. 1831-1879.
WIFE OF PRESIDENT HAYES.
H'irat Hraotle/il Totnpor/irio*.; Keforiiior of tl»e» Wlilte Hone
m
, RS. HAYKS was the dau^rhter of Dr. James Webb. Dr. Webb
removed from North CaroHiia to Ohio, where he souj^ht to arrange
for transportation to Liberia of shives whom he and his father had
Hberated. The daiij^hter Lucy was born in Ohio. The mother was of
New Enj^hmd Puritan descent.
Miss \\'ei)b was educated at the Wesleyan Female Collc^ge in Cincin-
nati. In 1852 she married Mr. Hayes. Her husband and all her brothers
enlisted in the L'nion army durinj^ the civil war, and Mrs. Hayes gave
much time to nursing sick and wounded soldiers, lx)th in her home and at
the front. .She spent two winters in camp and served in th(? hospital at
Frederick City, Maryland.
She was an uiuiring worker in j)hilanthropic and religious lines, and while
her husband was engaged as a member of Congress and then as governor of
Ohio, Mrs. Hayes devoted mucii time and talent to state charities. .She was
one of the organizers of the Ohio .Soldiers' and .Sailors' Orphans' Home.
In 1877 Mr. Hayes enter(*d ui)on his duties as president of the United
.States and Mrs. Hayes lucame mistress of the \Vhil<! House. Here she
introduced changes which (ailed forth ihr contemptuous criticism of many
and the well merited praise of many more. .She determined that the
White Hoii^e sin mid l)e a religious and temperance house so long as she
remained in it. Wine was not served evtMi at 'the state dinners. This
was a startling inno\ation for Washington society, but Mrs. Hayes would
not go contrary to her convictions because of the sneers of society.
At the (los<- <»f Mr. Hayes' administration, t<-mj)erance |)eoj)le, among
them m.iny per>oii> of eminence. j)resent<'(I Mrs. Hayes a great album of
testimoni.ils. in rri (>|Liniti«»n of her heroic position in th<' matter of wine
drinking.
Lucy Webb Hayes, "amiable, sincere, a devout Christian, and a
dexoted wile and motlier." She died June 25. 1S79.
409
LOUISA XI AY ALCOTT.
A. D. 1832-1888.
AUTHOR OF "LITTLE MEN" AND "LITTLE WOMEN."
Hj F2R father was the noted A. Bronson Alcott, the ** Sage of Concord,"
i I and intimate friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her early surround-
ings were of a highly intellectual and literary character, and she
naturally took to writing while yet ver>' young.
In her sketch Transcendental Wild Oats, she describes in an amusing
way the experiences of a year at Fruitlands, where an attempt was made to
establish an ideal community.
She was obliged to he a wage earner to help out the family income and
so taught school, served as a governess, and even did work as a seamstress.
Wearying of this, she wrote for the papers stories of a sensational
nature, which were remunerative from a financial point of view. Her con-
science was not easy in this matter, and she abandoned it. For a time she
serxed as nurse in a Washington hospital, but her health failed owing to
overu'ork.
Upon her recovery she secured the position as attendant to an invalid
lady and traveled in Furope. After several more attempts in literary lines,
she wrote IJttle Uomen, which was an immediate success. It reached a
.sale of 87,000 copies in three years. She wrote from the heart and wove
into the story incidents from the lives of herself and three sisters at
Concord. .She then wrote rhi Old Fasliioned Ciirl and Little Men. For
the latter the publishers received advance orders for 50,000 copies. Some
of her other works are, Aunt Jo s Scrap Baj^. in six volumes, Modern
Mephistopheles, Proverb Stories, Spinnitii*; Wheel Stories, Jo s Hoys, A Gar-
land Jo r (rirls, and Hospital Sketches, the last a record of her own experi-
ences in ministering to the sick and wounded.
Miss Alcott had ambition and ability \or a high i^rade of literary work.
She found her success as a writer of children's stories. Her receipts from
the books .she had written amounted to S'^.ooo in six months of the year
1888, and yet she declared that she was more proud of the first S32 she
received for her work, than of the $8,000.
410
BUPHROSYNB PAREPA ROSA.
A. D. 18S6-1874.
FAMOUS OPERATIC SINGER.
FTTHIS noted singer was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, May 7, 1836.
® I '«) Her father was a Wallachian nobleman, Baron Georgiades de
Boyesku, of Bucharest. The baron died when Parepa was but a
babe, leaving her mother a widow at twenty-one and in poverty. The
mother took to singing in public and trained her daughter for the profes-
sion. Parepa made remarkable progress in her musical studic^s and at the
same time learned to speak with ease, English, Italian, French, German,
and Spanish.
At sixteen years of age she appeared in public for the first time in the
city of Malta ; then at Naj)les, Genoa, Rome, Florence, Madrid, and Lis-
bon, and everywhere became a great favorite.
In 1857 she* appeared in London and was so well received and so well
did she sustain her rej)utation as a singer, that she continued in England
for nine years. During this j)eriod she married a British officer, Captain
Carvell of the Fast India service, but he died within a short time of their
marriage.
In 1866 Parepa came to America and made a tour of the C(juntry with
Levy, the noted cornetist, and Carl Rosa, violinist. She began with con-
cert work in New York, but afterwards took up also the oratorio and the
opera. In 1867 she became the wife of Carl Rosa. In i<S69-72 she organ-
ized with her husband an English opera company, with which she sang in
the principal cities nf the I'nited States. During the winter of iS72-73she
sang at the Khtdive's court in Egypt. She died in London, January 21.
1S74.
Parepa Rosa's voice was a pure soprano of great power and compass.
In the technical j)arts of music she was thoroughly trained and possessed a
perfect mastery of liersdf in execution.
411
NIARY ABIGAIL DODGE
(OA.11^ HAMILTON).
A. D. 1838-1806.
AMERICAN AUTHORESS AND CRITIC.
^T^ANNY FKRN " wittily writes of Gail Hamilton, "She was brought
M up as New England girls are generally brought up in the country ;
simply, healthfully, purely ; with plenty of fence for gymnastics ;
plenty of berries and birds, and flowers and mosses, and clover blossoms
and fruit in the sweet, odorous summers ; with plenty of romping compan-
ions not subjects for early tombstones and obituary notices, but with broad
chests, sun-kissed faces and nimble limbs and tongues."
Her pen name is taken from the last part of ' ' Abigail ' ' and Hamilton,
the place of her birth.
For several years she was teacher of the physical sciences in the Hart-
ford, Conn., High School. Later she was engaged as governess in Wash-
ington, D. C. But all this time she was in training for her work in
literary lines. She became a contributor to periodicals and then began to
write books. Here are the names of some of them : Country IJviyig and
Country Thinking, Gala Days, Wool Gathering, Summer Rest, IVoman's
Urongs, A Counter- Irritant, A flattie of the Books, First I.oi.'e is Best,
What Think Ye of Christ f
She was considered rather severe in her criticism of the male sex. Her
trenchant wit sometimes made them wince. For example : " Man is a thief
and holds the bag, and if women do not like what they git, so much the
better. Tht-y will be all the more willing to btconie household drudges. '*
'* Some men dole out money to their wives as if it were a gift, a charity.
A man has no more right to his earnings than his wife has. What ab-
surdity, to pay him his 7i'ages and gize her money to go shopping with !"
"She does not lock up the dinner in the cupl)oard and then stand at the
door and dole it out to him by the pailful, but sets it <>n the table for him
to help himself -J^ ^- -J- so looking at the matter from tlie very lowest
standpoint, a woman who has free access to money will not he half so likely
to lavish it, as the woman who is put off with scanty and infrequent sums."
412
FRANCES B. WILLARD.
A. D. 1889-1898.
THE FOREMOST AMERICAN TEMPERANCE REFORMER.
-iM- «-§-•-
^"^HERE may be some who feel that Miss Willard has been too extrava-
\j ^ gantly loved and praised, if so, they are the people who have not
y known the story of her life.
In these pages we can give but a few leading facts of one of the busiest
and most fruitful lives of this century.
In the first place great honor should be given to her parents for what
their daughter was and did.
Frances' early girlhood days were spent on a farm on the frontier in
what was then the territory of Wisconsin. She was a delicate child at first,
but she dressed simply and lived much in the open air. Her parents were
her teachers. After some years a highly educated young woman was en-
gaged to instruct Frances and her brother and sister.
At seventeen, Frances and her sister went to Milwaukee Female College,
and thence to the Northwest Female College at Evanston, Illinois, where
she graduated with high honors.
Miss Willard taught in schools, seminaries, and colleges for sixteen
years, her last position being that of dean of the Woman's College of the
Northwestern University. She was at the same time professor of aesthetics
and natural science.
One of her great achievements was the introduction of the system of
self-government among the students and bringing to pass its successful
operation.
The next period of her life is marked by the temperance crusade in
Ohio. Her soul was deeply stirred, she determined to join the movement.
The making of the Woman's College an organic part of the University
prevented her tarrying out her plans for the college : she resigned her posi-
tion as dean and j)rofessor and joined the crusade movement.
More than two thousand pupils had been under her instruction and her
friends numbered many more thousands. One woman has the sole honor
413
MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD.
of Standing by Miss Willard in entering the crusade, that one is Mrs.
Mary A. Livennore.
From teaching aesthetics in a university she became an apostle of tem-
perance to the drunkards of Chicago. She often went without her noon-
day hinch because she had no money to pay for it, and she walked long
and weary miles because she was unable to pay car fare.
Upon the death of O. A. Willard, her brother, in the summer of 1878,
she became editor of the Chicago Evening Post, and also president of the
Women's Christian Temperance movement ; while in 1882 she became a
member of the executive committee of the Prohibition party.
She became president of the Chicago W^oman's Christian Temperance
Union in * ' the day of small things. ' ' The work grew ; the National and
then the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union were formed,
Miss Willard becoming in turn president of each.
She was the originator of the motto, "For God, Home, and Native
Land." In the world-wide movement this became, " For (lod. Home, and
Every Land."
Her executive ability was as marvelous as her power over an audience
was mighty, and all these years her pen was busy writing along the many
lines of the work of the L'nion.
As an indication of how her character and work were regarded in Eng-
land we give the words of Lady Henry Somerset.
** She was welcomed in this country as I suppose no philanthropist has
been welcomed in our time. The vast meeting that was organized to greet
her at Exeter Hall was the most representative that has ever assembled in
that historic building. On the platform sat members of Parliament, digni-
tiiries of the Ciunch, temperance leaders from the Roman Catholic Church,
leaders of the Labor Movement, and of the Sahation Army, and delega-
tions from the Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational churches, and the
Society of Friends. The chief Jewish rabbi sent a congratulatory letter
and signed the address of welcome."
414
SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
A. D. 1820-
WOMAN'S RIGHTS ADVOCATE.
HIS woman is one* of those whose souls have burned and blazed
because of the unjust discrimination ajjainst their sex.
Her father was a manufacturer and Susan earned her first dollar
in the cotton mill. She received a ^ood education and began teaching
school at seventeen years of age. Her wages were $1.50 per week and
board. She continued teaching for nearly fifteen years and by the most
rijfid economy was able to save in that time but $300.
She was filled with indignation that while the education of a girl cost the
same as that of a boy at an academy, when she became a wage earner as a
teacher, she received l)ut one third that of a young man doing the same
work.
These exjHTiences nerved her for the struggle in behalf of her sex. And
every woman wage earner in America to-day is indirectly indebted to
Susan B. Anthony.
In 1S49 she became identified with the temperance movement and
placed sjx'cial emphasis upon the use of the ballot for woman's protection.
With a heart responsive to every righteous cause she threw her influence on
the side of the abolition of slavery in 1.S56, .She, with Mrs. Klizal)eth Cady
.Stanton and Parker Pilisbury, started a j)aj)er in New York called The
Ri'i'olution in which, with burning worvls, they set forth the claims of
women. But tiie public did not resj)ond and Miss Anthony was left with a
del)t of Sio/xx), whicii >he proceeded to discharge In' lecturing.
In 1S7J she insisted upon voting for president and was arrested. Her
counsrl ad\ise(l iur to give bonds to avoid going to jail. This she did,
much to hi r n grct afterwards, for slu» was thus depri\i»d of the right to
carry the tasc to the Suj)rcmc Court. The judge took tlie case out of the
hand> (»f the jury, jironounced her guilty, and fined her Sioo and costs.
To the ju<lg<- she said, ** R<-sistance to tyranny is obedience to (^lod ; I
shall never pay a penny of this unjust claim." Antl she kept her word.
She \\\\> li\t(l to >re a gre;it change in sentiment if not in law concerning
415
FRANCES POWER COBBE.
A. D. 18^2-
ENGLISH AUTHORESS AND PHILANTHROPIST.
MISS COBBE was born in Dublin and was a descendant of Charles
Cobbe, Archbishop of Dublin.
Her mother died when she was quite young and she made
inquiry of Theodore Parker, the briUiant rationalist, concerning the future
life. Parker's thinking was the mould in which much of her thought was
afterwards cast.
She wrote Studies A^euf and Old of Ethical and Social Subjects, Broken
Lights, a statement of the doctrines of different divisions of the English
Church, Essay on Intuitive Morals, probably her ablest production, Dar-
winism in Morals, and Other Essays in which she treated of unconscious
cerebration, dreams, and other questions of psychology.
She was greatly devoted to Mr. Parker and was witli him in Italy at the
time of his death.
Miss Cobbe was interested in philanthropic work. Early in her career
she assisted at the Red-house Reformatory, London. Along with her
rationalistic writings on religious themes, she contributed to the press and
personally worked in Ixhalf of the poor and friendless.
Siastin Irl A^ntlioiiv continued.
women and especially concerning herself. Once the press and the public
counted her a rare subject for jests and jeers. She suffered persecution for
righteousness' sake. She stood heroically. Her convictions were too deep
and luT character too noI)le for any faltering or com|)r<)mise. Society is
now honored by her presence and the press is glad to give a conspicuous
place to what she may choose to say. The heroic (jualities of Susan B.
Anthony will be profoundly admired in the coming generations.
She has lived to see a partial triumph of her cause. In one half the
states of the Union women vote on school (jucstions. In Kansas and
Michigan women vote on municipal questions, and in Wyoming and Colo-
rado they vote on all state questions on an ecjuality with men. So the
cause is marching on.
418
ELIZABKTH CADY STANTON.
A. D. 1815-
CHAMPION OF WOMAN'S RIGHTS.
/ I (his remarkable leader of women was the daughter of Judge Cady of
-L Johnstown, N. Y. She was reared in a community where most of
the people were Scotch and where the idea of woman's place and
ability was somewhat mediaeval. Judge Cady had one son upon whom he
centered his hopes and to whom he gave an excellent education. But this
son died when the daughter, Elizabeth, was but ten years of age. Her
brother had but just graduated from Union College.
The girl saw her father's grief and disappointment and determined to
fill his place. She applied herself most diligently to her studies and won a
prize in Greek. She hoped that her father would be pleased and admit
that a girl could be as good a student as a boy. But the expected com-
mendation did not come. She then took up additional studies and fitted
herself to enter Union College, but was refused because of her sex.
After a few years in Mrs. Willard's school at Troy, N. Y., she returned
home and spent seven years chiefly in the study of law in her father's office.
She became the wife of H. H. Stanton in 1840. Mr. Stanton was an
advocate of the anti-slavery movement and the couple attended the World's
Anti-Slavery Convention in London on their wedding tour. Here Mrs.
Stanton met Lucretia Mott, who, with others, had been sent as delegates
from the United States.
Upon her return to America, Mrs. Stanton was instrumental in calling
the first woman's rights convrntion. Her father, hearing of this, feared she
hail become insane and visited her to dissuade her from the undertaking.
This was in i«^47. At the convention she introduced the resolution, ** That
it is the duty of the women of tiiis country to secure to themselves the
sacred right of tiie chrtive franrhise. "
Mrs. Stanton was far in advance of her age and was subjected to Ixjth
Oj)|)osition and ridicnU- ; but she has continued to be an educator of public
oj)inion and many of iier plans which were at first ridiculed are now treated
with rtspect and (\vrp interest.
417
m
JULIA WARD HOWK.
A. D. 1819-
AUTHOR, PHILANTHROPIST, LECTURER.
I ISS WARD was bom of wealthy parents in the most fashionable
part of New York. The mother died when Julia was but five
years old. Her father was ver\- exact in observance of all social
forms, and sought to g^ve his children the best literary and musical advan-
tages. His home was the gathering place of many people of renown.
After her father's death, Miss Ward removed to Boston, where, owing^
to her marked abilities, she was received into the society of such notables
as Margaret Fuller, Horace Mann, Charles Sumner, and Ralph Waldo
Emerson.
Here she met Dr. Samuel G. Howe. He had already become well
known for espousing the cause of the Greeks against the Turks and carry-
ing supplies to them in the island of Crete and ministering to them in per-
son. He was best known, however, as the teacher of Laura Bridgman.
Miss Ward and Dr. Howe were married and traveled in Europe.
Charles Dickens had written about the wonderful development of Laura
Bridgman and this was the means of the newly married couple being
admitted to the society of Dickens, Thomas Moore, Carlyle, Sydney
Smith, and other literary' and social lights. They were invited to visit
Florence Nightingale, who was dreaming and planning for her great work,
and was much helped by Dr. Howe.
L'pon their return to America. Dr. and Mrs. Howe l>ecame identified
with the anti-sla\ery movement. She had betn for years a bright and
vigv^rous writer. Her pen was now wieKkd f»»r the race ot bondmen.
During the war they were visit inv; the soMiors in camp near Washing-
ton. During the \isit Mrs, Howe and others in the carriages sang *' John
Brown.*' in which the soldiers joined. One of her friends told her she
ought to write something better for the music. Next morning she was
awake long before daun and wrote tlie famous /^./.V.V Hymn ct the Republic.
Mrs. Howe has written extensively for our leading periodicals on a great
\-ariety of themes, and is widely known and loved.
418
HARRIBT Q. HOSMER.
A. I>. 1830-
AMERICAN SCULPTOR.
/ I \ HIS woman has honored both her native land and her sex by her
JL brilliant work. She proved that Americans can be sculptors, and
that a woman can handle a chisel as well as palette and brush.
Her birthplace was Watertown, Mass. Her mother and older sister
had died of consumption and her father, an eminent physician, encouraged
her to spend much time in the open air. Studies were of secondary import-
ance. She soon had a taste for hunting, fishing, rowing, horseback riding,
and became an all around athlete. In the fields and forests she gained a
thorough knowledge of animal life, and when still but a child she began to
model dogs, horses, and other animals in a clay pit near her home.
Her physical strength enabled her afterward to wield the four pound
mallet for eight or ten hours per day in giving life form to marble.
Her school days at Lenox, Mass. , were not marked by scholarship or
attention to the routine of school life. Nature was her school and teacher.
.She was the despair of those who were appointed to be her instructors.
Finding that sculpture was her forte she went to St. Louis to study
anatomy, as she could not gain admission to the conservative medical
schools of the Kast.
Next she went to Rome and became the pupil of the famous sculptor,
Gibson. For her work, The Sleepin^a^ Faun, she received $5,000.
Zcnobia in Chains was one of her masterpieces. The proud but captive
queen of Palmyra is shown as she was forced to march in the triumphal
procession of the Roman concjuerors. ** She is a queen in spirit, unde-
throned by calamity."
The bronze statue of Col. Thomas H. Benton in .St. Louis is a speci-
men of her work. In accepting the invitation to prepare the statue, she
said, amonj^^ otli<r things, " Rut I have also reason to be grateful to you be-
cause I am a woman : and, knowing what barriers must in the outset oppose
all womanly efforts, 1 am indebted to the chivalry of the West, which has
first overleaped them."
421
HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
A. D. 1885-
NOVELIST AND JOURNALIST.
4— *— V
^TLALAIS, Me., was the birthplace of Harriet Prescott. Her father,
\JM Joseph N. Prescott, was a lumber merchant. He afterwards studied
T law, and in 1849 went to the far west with the thousands of fortune
seekers. He was one of the founders of the city of Oregon and was thrice
elected mayor. During the last twenty years of his life he suffered from
lingering paralysis.
Her mother was a woman of great nobility of character and left her
impress upon the life of her daughter.
At fourteen Harriet went to Newbur>'port to live with an aunt, where she
might gain an education which could not be obtained in Calais. She won
the prize for an essay on Hamlet and gained the attention of some literary
people who gave her encouragement. She wrote plays for the school
exhibitions which proved acceptable. She afterward studied at Pinkerton
Academy, her mother and the other children having removed to Derry, N. H.
Harriet early began to write short stories to win bread for loved ones,
and she was able to add somewhat to their scanty income.
In 1858 there appeared in the Atlantic Monthly a story from her pen,
In a Cellar, which created a great stir. Sir Rohari s Ghost was one of her
great works. llie South Breaker, taken from the scenes of sea-faring life
so familiar at Newburyport, breathes the very breath of old ocean with the
rumble and roar of sullen storm. A Thief iii the Night is a dramatic story
of sowing and reaping in the fields of sin. She wrote also, New England
Legeiids, The Marquis of Ca^abas, and Hester Stanley at St. Mark' s.
In 1865 Miss Prescott was married to Richard S. Spofford, a Newbury-
port lawyer. They had loved each other since the days of early youth,
and had for many years been engaged.
Mrs. Spofford gave careful attention to domestic affairs and was a home-
maker as well as a literary light.
She wrote on domestic subjects as well as fiction. Among her produc-
tions are Art Decoration Applied to Furniture and The Servant Question,
422
BELVA A. LOCKWOOD.
A. D. isao-
FIRST WOMAN ADMITTED TO BAR OF U. S. SUPREME COURT.
1+-4-I
MRS. LOCKWOOD is one of America's most remarkable women, and
has achieved marked success in her chosen profession, that of law.
In this she is the pioneer of our country. Her career is the story
of struggle and well earned victories.
Her maiden name was Burnett and her birthplace Royalton, N. Y.
She began teaching school when but fourteen years old and with the money
thus earned attended the academy in her native town. She was married to
Mr. McNall, a farmer in the town. One daughter was born to them. Her
husband died four years after their marriage, and the following year she
entered Genesee College and graduated in the regular course. She was at
once called to become principal of the Lockport Union School, where she
continued for four years. Subsequently she taught at Gainsville Seminary,
and later was proprietor of the McNall Seminary at Oswego, N. Y.
In 1868 she removed to W^ashington, D. C, and opened a school.
Soon after this she married Rev. Ezekiel Lockwood. About the same time
she began the study of law and sought admission to the law school of Co-
lumbia College, but was refused on the ground that her presence in the
classes " would distract the attention of the young men."
Two years later she received the degree of A. M. from Syracuse Univer-
sity, anci the following year was admitted to the National University Law
School, from which she graduated, receiving the degree of B.L.
After a long and spirited controversy she was admitted to the bar of the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, where she has practiced with
marked success. In 1875 she sought admission to the Court of Claims.
She was rejected on the ground, first, that she was a woman, and, second,
that she was a married woman. A year later she sought, but was refused,
admission to the T. S. Supreme Court. She then drafted a bill admitting
women to the bar of the V. S. Supreme Court, and after three years of
work secured its passage through lK)th branches of Congress. She was
then admitted and stands as the first w(jman to be granted that honor.
423
LOUISE C. MOULTON.
A. D. 1835-
POETESS, NOVELIST, AND NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT.
^^\ ISS CHANDLER was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, and for years
aTj^ after winning literar>' fame made the place of her birth her place of
residence for a part of the year. She is a charming woman in
the noblest sense of the word and warmly admired by her hundreds of
friends and thousands of readers.
When she was but eighteen a Boston firm published a collection of her
stories and poems under the title of T/iiSy That and the Other, It was a
pronounced success and quickly reached a sale of fifteen thousand copies.
Louise attended school for a year at Mrs. Willard's Seminary at Troy, and
in the year following was married to William Moulton, a Boston editor and
publisher who knew her through her writings.
After the publication of Jinio Clifford, a novel, she wTote for Harper' s^
Atlantic, Scribner' s, Yoiiyig Folks, and Youtli s Companion,
In 1870 she began her work of Boston correspondent of the New York
Tribune, and continued her letters, sometimes four per week, for six years.
In 1876 she visited Europe, where she did considerable literary work
amid the delights of travel. One of her books was published while she
visited in London and was highly praised.
Her Bedtime Stories were dedicated to her own little daughter, who
seemed to have been their inspiration. Other works are : Little A/other^
Some lVo?nen s Hearts, Fleeing from Tah, and SwalloiC Flights (a collec-
tion of poems).
We quote two verses from her poem, House of Death,
** There is rust upon locks and hinges,
And mold and blight on the walls,
And silence faints in the chambers,
-And darkness waits in the halls —
" Waits as all things have waited
Since she went, that day of spring,
lk)me in her pallid splendor
To dwell in the court of the King.**
424
LADY HENRY SOMERSKT.
PHILANTHROPIST AND TEMPERANCE LEADER.
-1*8^-
/ I iHIS remarkable and much loved lady is the daughter of the third
JL Earl of Somers, who was in every way a nobleman. For some years
he was Lord-in-waiting to the Queen, spending the time at Windsor,
Osborne, and Balmoral. Being a man of artistic and literary tastes, he
resigned his position to devote himself to his studies. His intimate
acquaintance with the Queen gave his daughter many advantages. He
was for thirty years in the House of Lords.
Lady Henry Somerset has a vast estate at Eastnor, fifteen miles in
length and containing twenty-five thousand acres. The castle is three miles
from the lodge gate in Eastnor Park. In London she owns a tract of land
on which one hundred and twenty-five thousand persons live.
To the welfare of the people on her country and city estates she has
devoted much of her time and income. She began by studying the causes
of poverty and crime, and found the liquor traffic at the bottom of all.
Being a woman of deeds as well as words, she took the total abstinence
pledge, induced some of her tenants to do the same, and so started a tem-
perance society. She visited the homes of her tenants, gave Bible readings
in the kitchens, and gathereci the mothers at the castle to confer with them
as to the training of thi-ir children.
Her philanthropic work soon spread beyond her own estates, and calls
came for her to speak and work in behalf of temperance far and near.
She went among the miners of South Wales and held meetings for days in
succession in tents, halls, and in the pits during the dinner hours. Hers
seemed to the poor miners as the form and voice of an angel.
In 1890 she became president of the British Woman*s Temperance
Association.
She visited AnK-rita to attend the World's Woman's Christian Temper-
ance Tnion. At that time was formed and from that time ripened the
friendship of Lady Henry Somerset and Frances F. Willard.
This visit gave the American people a new idea of the possibilities of
425
MARV N. MURF^RKE
(CHARLES EOBERX CRA.DDOCK).
THE NOVELIST OF SOUTHERN LIFE.
M"
ISS MURFREE is a Southerner, and, as portrayer of Southern life
and scenery, she occupies a unique place.
Her early sketches were published in the Atlantic Monthly and
met with immediate success. She had opened up a new field and people
read her stories, In the Tennessee J\fountains, with great relish.
* ' The everlasting hills, calmly observant of human vicissitudes, form a
harmonious background for her wild, pathetic, and tragic scenes. The
mountaineers whom she portrays are a taciturn, serious, secret race, with
few ideas, but tenacious of those they have. Her men are stern and rude ;
her women are reserved, undemonstrative, lacking in feminine grace and
charm, but unalterable, both in their loves and their hates. This straqge
people, with their uncompromising speech, their peculiar dialect, their
rugged, natural environment, form an unfamiliar and powerful picture."
The following are the. names of some of her works : Mliere the Baiiie
was Fought, In the Clouds, The Story of Keedon Bluffs, The Despot oj
Broomsedge Cove, The Stranger People's Comitry, The Prophet of the Great
Smoky Mountain,
Even Miss Murfrce's publishers supposed that they were dealing with a
man and were greatly surprised when she visited Boston and called upon
them. Her writings have all the vigor of a masculine mind and at the same
time show the keen insight of a woman.
Lf£Ldl>r Henry Somerset continued,
English nobility. Lady Henry took Miss Willard back to England with
her for much needed rest.
She is one of the busiest of women. She is obliged to give attention to
nearly one hundred letters per day. The calls for her time or means in
behalf of humanity are multitudinous and exacting. Hers might be a life
of refined ease and selfish indolence, but she chooses to give herself untir-
ingly to the betterment of her fellow beings.
426
VICTORIA ALEXANDRINA.
A. D. 1810-
ENGLAND'S NOBLEST QUEEN AND EMPRESS OF INDIA.
MERE list of the great events and progressive movements of Vic-
toria's reign would fill many pages. In the summer of 1887 was
celebrated the fiftieth year of her reign and ten years later, 1897,
the nation and the world did honor to the queen by celebrating her * * dia-
mond jubilee.** And well might the occasion be celebrated, for no similar
period in the history of Europe has been so ** crowded with benefit to
humanity. * '
This book, dealing with the progress of woman, may find its culmina-
tion in the person and reign of Victoria.
Her coming to the throne is of romantic interest. Her father, Edward,
Duke of Kent, was the youngest son of George HL He was sent to
Hanover to be educated as a soldier. A thousand pounds a year was ap-
pointed for his education, but this did not seem sufficient. He contracted
debts and without permission of his father returned to England. He was
sent to Gibraltar and then to Canada, where he commanded the military
forci's of British America. Later he was made governor of Gibraltar and
ruled well.
When he was fifty years of age he married Princess Louisa Victoria of
Saxe-Cohurg, who became the noble mother of Victoria. The father desired
that his child should be Ixjrn in England and sought financial aid from his
brother for the journey, but this was refused. Edward believed that he
would some day be king as his brothers had lived dissipated lives and were
older than he ; moreover, he expected that his child would rule England.
Funds were at last secured, though the duke lived and died heavily in debt.
The couple returned to England and took up their residence at Ken-
sington Palace, where the future (jueen was born. Her father lived but eight
months after her i)irth and the training of Victoria devolved entirely upon
the mother, one of the noblest of the world's noble women. The character
of England's (jueen was formed by her mother.
Her education was most thorough and liberal and in all her studies and
427
VICTORIA ALEXANDRINA.
amusements the mother was her constant companion. From her cradle she
was taught to speak three languages, English, German, and French, and
early became familiar with Latin, also Italian and Greek, as well as being
proficient in mathematics and the sciences.
As a child she was told of her father's debts and early began to lay aside
money which might have been spent for toys, to help in canceling the debts.
Almost her first act on coming to the throne was to pay these debts in full.
After she had been proclaimed sovereign she retired to her mother's
apartments and then followed this notable conversation : —
*'I can scarcely believe, mamma, that I am really Queen of England.
Can it indeed be so ? ' *
'*You are really queen, my child," replied the Duchess of Kent,
*' listen how your subjects still cheer your name in the streets and cry to
God to bless you.'*
"In time I shall perhaps become accustomed to this too great and
splendid state. But, since I am sovereign, let me, as your queen, have to-
day my first wish. Let me be quite alone, dear mother, for a long time."
And Victoria spent the first hours of her reign alone on her knees pray-
ing for herself and her people, with supplications simple and noble, which
have been graciously answered in these decades.
From the hour that \'ictoria became queen her mother, the duchess,
gave her no further advice or suggestion, but treated her with the respect
due her rank. The duchess was confident of the character which had
been formed and wisely and graciously left all resj)onsibility upon the one
who had been so carefully trained to bear it. Although but eighteen years
of age, Victoria was a woman in wisdom.
Two years after •her coronation she married Prince Albert of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha and until his death, twenty years later, they lived lives of
ideal domestic happiness and gave to England a model of home love and
fidelity. Nine children were born to them.
Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, January 22,
1 90 1. The expressions of universal sorrow which her death called forth
from all the civilized nations of the world show how widely she was loved
and honored both as a woman and as a queen.
428
ANNA E. DICKINSON.
A. D. 1842-
AUTHOR AND WAR-TIME LECTURER.
.» <» o. —
^^ ER father was a Philadelphia merchant and a devout Quaker. Her
K^/ mother was of aristocratic family and of much refinement and
nobility of character. The father lost his property and soon after-
wards died. The family was reduced to poverty. Anna was a restless,
willful, and imaginative child, who caused all about her much anxiety.
Ambition and will power carried her over many hard places. Her more
wealthy schoolmates made sport of her poor clothes. This stung her to
more intense action. She read everything within her reach. For months
she slept not more than five hours in the twenty-four. She had a passion
for oratory, and on one occasion scrubbed a sidewalk for twenty-five cents
that she might hear Wendell Phillips lecture on *'The Lost Arts.*'
Her fiery character is seen in the following incident : As she was about
to accept the position as teacher of a district school, the committeeman
remarked in an insulting tone, * * A man taught this school and we gave
him twenty-eight dollars a month ; but we should not give a girl more than
sixteen dollars." In her wrathful pride she answered, "Sir, are you a fool,
or do you take me for one? I am too poor to-day to buy a pair of cotton
gloves, but I would rather go in rags than degrade my womanhood by
accepting anything at your hands." She was penniless and at last accepted
a place as saleswoman in a store, but soon gave that up because she was
expected to niisrtpresent the goods.
In iS6o she made her first speech on ** Woman's Rights and Wrongs"
before the Association of Progressive Friends.
She obtained a position in the new T. S. Mint, but after the battle of
Ball's Bluft she declared. This battle was not lost through ignorance or
incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general. For
this she was dismissed.
From this time she turned to the lecture field and made lecturing her
profession. She was afterwards thankful for her discharge from the mint,
though the way seemed dark at the time. In fact there were many other
429
ANNA E. DICKINSON.
dark days. Few women have known greater trials or more splendid
triumphs. *
Early in 1863 she went to G.mcord, New Hampshire, to lecture. It
was her last appointment for the season. She had no money and the only
prospective income was the ten dollars promised her for the lecture. She
had sought to find employment without success and was weary and dis-
heartened.
But her lecture on ' ' Hospital Life * ' was such a success that the
Republican leaders said, "If we can get that girl to make that speech all
through New Hampshire, we can carry the state ticket in the coming elec-
tion.'* On March ist she began her tour of triumph, which ended in a
Republican victory. The governor-elect made a personal acknowledgment
that her magnetic, eloquent speeches had secured his election.
The tide had turned. Connecticut sought her. The cause of the party
there seemed lost, but through her efforts victory was achieved. She was
given one hundred dollars per night, and for her speech the night before
election received four hundred dollars.
Everywhere there was a perfect furore to hear this gifted girl. She
was called * * The New Joan of Arc. * '
She was next invited to Pennsylvania and sent into the mining region,
because, as some one said, " no man dared go there to speak." She was
often assaulted with stones and rotten eggs, and received not one dollar for
her ser\'ices.
One of the greatest honors of her life was the invitation to speak in the
Hall of Representatives. Here assembled to hear her one of the most
notable audiences that ever met in Washington. It was composed of sen-
ators, representatives, foreign diplomats, the chief justice, the president,
and Washington society generally. The proceeds of the lecture were over
one thousand dollars and were devoted to the National Freedmen's Relief
Society.
One of her notable lectures, many times delivered after the close of the
war, was '* Woman's Work and Wages." On this she could speak with
the burning eloquence of experience.
430
FANNY J. CROSBY.
A. D. 1898-
BLIND SONG WRITER.
HE has written over twenty-five hundred hymns besides many secular
songs, cantatas, and lyrical productions of various kinds. * * Rescue
the Perishing," ** Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,'* and **Keep
Thou My Way, O Lord," are among her well known productions. In con-
nection with Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., for many years was car-
ried on the Mayflower Mission and the last named hymn was long used as
the Mission prayer song.
** Qose to Thee," ** Come to the Saviour," ** Saviour, More than Life
to Me," ** I am Thine, O Lord." ** So Near to the Kingdom," have been
sung round the world in English and have also been translated into many
other languages.
She does not rank with the great poets but her songs have reached
many hearts where more stately productions would not have gained admit-
tance. Her mission has been a noble one and well performed. To,
Rescue the perishing.
Care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave ;
Weep o'er the erring one,
Lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Her productions might wi-11 be called *' Songs of a Half-Century," for
she has hern writing for more than that period of time.
Her talent for writing verses showed itself when she was not more than
eight years old and e\ ery year since has seen something from her pen. All
these have been writttn in her blindness and many of them, so full of joy
and hope and light, gain new beauty and a meiLsure of pathos, when we
remember that they were written in darkness.
She is married, lu-r husband's name In'ing Van Alstyne, but the world
continues to know and love her as Kanny J. Crosby.
Although she has written so much her productions have never been
collected into a single book.
431
]V[ARY H. HUNT.
AMERICAN TEMPERANCE REFORMER AND EDUCATOR.
^-
/ I \ HE woman who has appeared before more legislative bodies than any
JL other living person, has traveled untold thousands of miles, and has
delivered addresses innumerable on temperance, education, and
kindred themes.
Her father, Ephraim Hanchett, was a courageous and enthusiastic
worker in the anti-slavery movement, and his daughter inherited his best
traits.
After a most thorough course of studies she became professor of natural
science in one of the leading institutions of Baltimore. In this she was
unconsciously training for her life work in behalf of scientific temj>erance
instruction.
When she was married and became a mother she found a further educa-
tion and preparation for her great work. She saw in the liquor traffic and
the drink habit the great foe of humanity and the sorrow of mothers and
wives.
Her mind took a wide sweep. She saw that rescue work was but a
part of what the world needed. The real nature and effects of alcoholic
drinks upon mind and body should be known by the children. Instruction
should not be optional but compulsory.
She became the superintendent of the newly constituted educational
department of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. A
new school literature on hygiene was needed and was created, largely under
her direction.
Thoroughly abreast of the times on all scientific and legislative matters,
she has, though opposed and misrepresented, won a host of brilliant vic-
tories for humanity and temperance.
As a result of her work legislation for compulsory temperance educa-
tion has been secured in most of the states of the Union and in all the terri-
tories, also in national military and naval academies and in all schools for
the Indian and colored races under national control.
432
MARQARET OLIPHANT.
A. D. 18S8-
ENGLISH NOVELIST AND BIOGRAPHER.
HE is one of the most prolific authors of this age. For forty years
she produced a book each year and has written in all over seventy
books. She is especially happy in the delineation of Scottish
and English life and character. Her birthplace was in Midlothian, Scot-
land, and this, in part, accounts for her skill in depicting life in Scotland.
Among her works are Katie Stewart, The Laird of Norlan, The
Chronicles oj Carlinjiford (in nine volumes), The Ladies Undores, and
Mrs. Blencarroivs' Troubles.
Of her works on history and biography we mention, The Literary His-
tory of England, The Makers of Florence, Makers of Venice, ferusalem,
the Holy City, and St. Francis of Assisi.
She edited for the Messrs. Blackwood the series of Foreign Classics for
English Readers and prepared the volume on Dante and Cervantes.
Mrs. Oliphant as a writer is not only prolific but versatile, more so, per-
haps, than any other female novelist. From pure fiction she could turn to
psychological subjects and from these to historical themes and thence to
sketches of travel. Two volumes of Historical Sketches of the Reign of
George //. are of grtat interest and permanent value. The volumes
consist of short biographies, political, literary, and fashionable. Queen
Caroline and Walpolr come first, then follow *'The Man of the
World" (Lord Che^terhcld;, ''The Woman of Fashion" (Lady Mont-
tagu), ''Thf Toft" (Tope), **The Reformer" (John Wesley), **The
Sailor" (Ansnn), "The PhilosopluT " (Berkeley), **The Novelist*'
(Richardson), ''The Skeptic" (David Hume), and **The Painter''
(Hogarth ).
This is a hapj)y idea of showing the times, through the portraiture of a
group of hading individuals in the various walks of life. One of the
easiest ways of studying history is through the biographies of leaders.
We wouhl e^peeially mention in this connection her vivid description
of Gi^rge Whiiefield and the Bristol colliers.
433
MRS. HUMPHRY WARD.
A. D. IMl-
ENGLISH NOVELIST.
J^vittior of "Rol^ert Slamere.*'
MRS. WARD is of the illustrious family of Arnolds, Dr. Thomas
Arnold of Rugby being her grandfather. He had two sons, Mat-
thew and Thomas. Mrs. Ward is daughter of the last named.
After his studies were completed at Oxford, he became inspector of schools
for Tasmania (the island south of Australia). There he married Miss Julia
Lovell, and Mary Augusta was born to them.
Mr. Arnold became a Catholic, and returning to Great Britain was
appointed professor in the University at Dublin.
Miss Arnold married Mr. Humphry Ward.
Her earliest work was Milly and Oily, or a Holiday Among the Maun-
tains. Next came Miss Drethertoji, the heroine of which is said to repre-
sent Mary Anderson, "a study of the extent to which ignorance may
smother even true dramatic genius, and of the power of that genius, when
aroused, to break through the enveloping and suffocating medium."
Other productions are, Robert Rlsmcre, The History of David Grieve,
Marcella, Sir George Tressady, Helbeek of Baiinisdale, and Eleanor,
Robert Elsmere produced a great stir in the reading world. Within a
few months it passed through seven editions in England, and half a million
copies were sold in America in less than three years. It was also translated
into German, Dutch, and Danish. The burning questions as between the
old faith and the new faith or no faith at all, are handled without hesitation.
Mrs. Ward is a keen critic. She has a wealth of diction and of thought.
The book took hold of not mere novel readers but of deep thinkers of the
time. One English writer said of the book, " It is hard reading and requires
toil and effort. Yet if it be difficult to persist, it is impossible to stop."
Mrs. Ward, in 1890, became identified with a scheme known as ** Uni-
versity Hall," London. Here are given lectures in the interest of modern
theism and the liberal views of the Bible. Coupled with this there is
carried on a work for the poor.
434
tftcHwoo^, CJaf^TB^fon,
CLARA BARTON.
A. ]>. 1830-
GREAT LEADER IN THE RED CROSS MOVEMENT.
WHEN one contemplates the many and varied philanthropic under-
takings and achievements of Clara Barton he feels to bow in rev-
erent silence to womanhood. Her work is beyond praise.
In the hospital ser\'ice during the civil war, in the Franco-German
war, as superintendent of the reformatory prison for women at Sherborn,
Mass., as president of the American Red Cross Society, as a worker for the
famine sufferers in Russia, for fire sufferers in Michigan, for sufferers from
floods in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Johnstown, Pa., for sufferers from the
great cyclone on the South Atlantic coast, for the Armenian sufferers
under Turkish atrocities, and for the soldiers during the Spanish-Amefican
war as well as for the non-combatant Cubans, Clara Barton has given her-
self, without reserve or cessation, until relief has been afforded.
She was born in North Oxford, Mass. During her earlier years she
taught school until her health failed. For rest and restoration she went to
Washington, D. C. , and after a time was appointed to a position' in the
Patent Office. She resigned her position in the Patent Office and went to
the front to minister to the sick and wounded soldiers, without pay. She
well earned the title of '' Angel of the Battlefield." The hospitals of the
army of the James were placed in her charge.
Another invaluable siT\ ice was rendered by her in establishing a Bureau
of Records of missing men of the Union army, compiled from prison and
hospital rolls and buri.il lists. To this work she gave four years of her time
and expended her small fortune of ;Sio,ooo. Congress voted to reimburse
her, but she declined remuneration for her services.
She was in Furope for nuu h needed rest when the Franco-German war
broke out and was inuurdiately asked to go to the front to assist in caring
for the wounded. In recognition of her services she received numerous
badges of licinor from nobility .md royalty.
Broken in health she returned to America, and became the first presi-
dent of the American Association of the Red Cross.
437
FLORENCE NIQHTINQALE.
A. D. 1820-
ENGLISH PHILANTHROPIST AND CRIMEAN NURSE.
'Cy*ER father was William Edward Shore, a Sheffield banker. He fell
Jyr heir to the estates of Peter Nightingale, and by the requirements of
^ the will took the name of Nightingale.
Florence was a thorough student from childhood and became well
versed in modern languages, but she seemed endowed with a taste and
talent for hospital work. When very young she often visited the hospitals
and ministered to the sick.
As a young woman she went to Germany and took a course of training
in a school of deaconesses at Kaiserswerth which was conducted by Pastor
Fleidner. Her first work upon returning to England was to superintend a
home for sick and infirm governesses.
The sufferings of the soldiers in the Crimea was a call to larger duties,
and she went as superintendent of a corps of volunteer female nurses. A
hospital was established at Scutari and in two days six hundred soldiers
were under her care. In three weeks the number had reached three thou-
sand.
There had been horrible neglect and mismanagement in caring for the
men previous to this, but Miss Nightingale was a born general as well as
nurse. By her calm but firm direction, order was brought out of chaos.
Her endurance seemed superhuman. The correspondent and commissioner
of the London Times wrote, ' ' When all the medical officers have retired
for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles
of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand,
making her solitary rounds."
She was a ministering angel to the poor soldiers, and many would kiss
her shadow as it fell across their poor forms. One soldier said, ** Before
she came there was much cussin' and swearin' ; but after that it was holy
as a church." She was not welcomed by either the military or medical
officers and was obliged to almost fight her way. Too many of them cared
more for their positions and red tape than for dying soldiers. But healthy
438
ADELAIDE RISTORI.
A. D. 1891-
ITALIAN TRAGIC ACTRESS.
QlHE was born to the stage, for her parents were members of a strolling
/^ theatrical company and when but four years of age Adelaide took
juvenile parts in plays. When twenty-five years of age she became
the wife of the Marquis del Grillo and retired from the stage. But quiet
domestic life was not congenial and in a few years she returned to her pro-
fession. Before her marriage she played comedy. She now took up
tragedy. Rachel was the queen of tragedy at Paris but Ristori went to
that city and won the enthusiastic applause of the French.
She traveled through Europe, continually adding to her fame. She
then visited the United States and South America.
As a tragic actress she was by many counted as the greatest in the world.
Florence MlKl^tlriKale continued*
English sentiment was so strong that soon all the hospitals were placed
under her superintendence.
Miss Nightingale contracted hospital fever, and after two years of toil
was obliged to return to England. Queen Victoria sent her a jewel and a
letter of thanks. The soldiers of the Crimea desired to erect a statue in
her honor, but this she declined.
The grateful people of England subscribed ;^50,ooo as a testimonial,
and this was devoted to the erection of "Nightingale Home,'* which is
the great institution of England for the training of nurses.
The pionter work of Florence Nightingale as an army nurse was the
inspiration and model for American women in the civil war.
The Ouetn's gift to Miss Nightingale was a cross blazing with diamonds
and bearing this inscription : —
•*T<) FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
AS A MARK OK ESTEEM AND GRATITl'DE
Kt)R HER DEVOTION TOWARDS THE
(Jl'EEN'S BRAVE SOLDIERS.
From Victoria R., 1855. •*
439
ELIZABETH BLACKWELL.
A. 1>. 1821-
THE FIRST WOMAN PHYSICIAN IN AMERICA.
MISS BLACKWELL was of English birth ; her parents, however,
removed to this country when she was ten years of age. Her
father failed in business in New York and a few years afterwards
died, leaving a wife and nine children in very straitened circumstances.
Elizabeth was then seventeen years of age. For seven years, she, with two
sisters, taught a young ladies' seminary and nearly supported the family.
When about twenty-two years of age she determined to study medicine
and set resolutely to work along with her teaching. After a few years of
study by herself, she removed to Charleston, S. C, where she taught
music and studied medicine with Dr. Samuel H. Dickson. Later she
removed to Philadelphia and studied under Dr. J. M. Allen.
She made application to the medical schools of Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston, but in each case was refused admission on the ground
that there was no precedent and that it was improper to break away from
established custom. She was, however, admitted to the college at Geneva,
N. Y. , pursued her studies with marked success and took her degree in
1849. *' There is some place in the world for me and I'll find it," was her
repeated declaration.
She pursued clinical studies in Blockley hospital, Philadelphia, and then
went to Paris to study in the Matcrnite hospital. Her next experience was
in the hospital of St. Bartholomew in London, where she spent a year.
She then returned to New York and began the practice of medicine.
It was found almost im{)ossible to secure a respectable boarding house
upon which to display her sign. These things were unspeakably hard to
bear, but she could work and wait and win her way. Difficulties made her
more determined. The victory was at hist won for herself and the way
prepared for others to win success and lionor.
Emily Blackwell began the study of niedicir.e about the time that her
sister Elizabeth became established in New York. She graduated at the
Cleveland College in 1854 having also studied in the Rush Medical College,
440
charlotte: m. yonoe.
A. D. 1893-
ENGLISH NOVELIST AND HISTORIAN.
s>g!aj3K'Z3^
MISS YONGE has been a most prolific writer, having published
about one hundred and twenty-five volumes of fiction and a large
number of national histories for younger readers. She is an ardent
supporter of high church views and this appears in nearly all her works.
She gained a large circle of readers by The Heir of Redclyffe, which
appeared in 1853. A large part of the early profits from this book were
used to fit out the missionary schooner, *' Southern Cross,** for Bishop
Selwyn.
From the profits of her book Daisy Chain she gave ;^2,ooo to build
a missionary college in New Zealand.
Her historical works include Greece, Rome, France, Germany, Eng-
land, and the United States.
She has also written History of Christian Names and their DeritHdion and
Story of English Missionary Workers, Several of her histories for young
people were rewritten so that they could be read and enjoyed by the small
children, as, for example, Aiuit Charlotte s Rofnan History for the Little
Ones.
Among her many works of fiction are the following: Lances of Lyn-
7cood, Scenes from the Life of a Spinster, Clever Woman of the Family,
Prince and Page, . / Story of the Last Crusade, The Dove in the Pagle's Nest.
In (luantity her productions are a marvel ; the quality is well sustained.
lCll>:fil>otU DlfioUwoll continued,
Chicago. She spent a year each in Edinburgh, Paris, and London. Upon
Ikt return to America she became closely identified with her sister
Klizaheth in New York. *'The New York Infirmary for Women and
Children" was established through their edorts. The object was first, a
charity for the poor ; second, a resort for respectable patients desiring
special treatment ; and, third, a place to which female students might come
for practical clinical study.
441
BM PRESS EUQENIB.
A. D. 1826-
WIFE OF NAPOLEON 111.
-»> 3K €♦
RAPOLEON III. was a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and was bom
in 1808. He lived in exile from 181 5 to 1830, joined in a revolt
against the pope, attempted to organize a revolution among the
French soldiers at Strasburg, invaded Prance and made an attack, was
captured and held as a prisoner for six years, when he escaped, was made
a member of the National Assembly of France, became president of the
republic, was chosen president for ten years, was elected emperor, married
Eug6nie, took part in Crimean war, fought against Austria, interfered in
affairs of Mexico, declared war with Germany and was taken prisoner at
Sedan. The following year he removed to England, where he died in 1873.
Eug6nie was the daughter of a Spanish officer ; her mother was de-
scended from Scotch Roman Catholic parentage.
She visited Paris the year before Louis Napoleon became emperor and
was married to him the year after he gained the throne. The municipality
of Paris bestowed upon the bride a wedding gift of six hundred thousand
francs, but at her request it was expended in founding a female college.
With her husband she visited Queen Victoria and from that time Queen
and Empress were close friends.
She served as regent three times, — first, when Napoleon was absent in
Italy, again when he was making his Algerian tour, and lastly, upon his
departure for the seat of war, when his arms were directed against Germany.
After the battle of Sedan, in which her husband was captured, she was
urged to flee from Paris, as the streets were full of excited people and the
palace was beset by an infuriated mob.
By the aid of friends she managed to get through the German lines
which guarded Paris and so escaped to England, where the Emperor joined
her upon his release. They had one son to whom the mother was de-
votedly attached. He joined the English troops and was slain by the sav-
ages in South Africa. This great grief, coupled with other reverses and
losses, for a time threatened the life of Eugenie.
442
BARONESS BURDETT-COtJTTS.
A. D. 1814-
ENGLISH PRINCESS OF PHILANTHROPY.
VJ'TER father was Sir Francis Burdett, Baronet, but her great wealth
-L-L came from her grandfather, Thomas Coutts, the noted banker. She
thus joins the name of her grandfather, to that of her father and is
known as Burdett-Coutts.
In 1 88 1 she was married to William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, who by
royal license took the name of Burdett-Coutts.
In 1 87 1 the prime minister surprised her with the offer of a peerage
from her majesty, Queen Victoria, and the honor was accepted.
The baroness has always been remarkable for her executive ability.
She p>ossessed discernment and upon finding out needs of individuals or
classes took the initiative in ameliorating conditions. One of her first great
works was to establish a home for young women who had turned aside
from the path of virtue. Nearly one half of those who came to the home
were permanendy reclaimed.
Spitalfields in London was a mass of destitution ; the baroness estab-
lished a sewing school for women where they could be taught, fed, and
provided with work. From this place nurses were sent out to the sick of
that section.
In 1859 several hundred destitute boys were fitted out for the Royal
Navy or placed in industrial homes.
Nova Scotia Gardens was one of the moral plague spots of London.
Miss Coutts i)urchased this section and upon what was figuratively and
literally the dumping ground of the city she erected model dwellings for
abi^ut two hundred familit-s, to be let at a moderate price. The place was
named Columbia Square.
When the cry came from suffering humanity in Ireland, Scotland,
Turkey, and different parts of England, Baroness Coutts was among the
first to respond. For destitute fishermen she afforded both temporary and
permanent relief by means of food, clothing, tackle, and boats.
We are justified in calling her a princess of philanthropy and charity.
443
MARY A. LIVERMORE.
A. I>. 1821-
JOURNALIST, PHILANTHROPIST, AND LECTURER.
SER father was Timothy Rice, of Welsh descent, who possessed many
of the sturdy Welsh qualities, even to not sparing the rod in the
training of his daughter.
She graduated from the Boston public schools at fourteen and then
attended the Female Seminary in Charlestown, Mass. The four years
work she accomplished in half that time and then became a njember of the
faculty, teaching Latin and French.
Removing to southern Virginia, she saw slavery as it was and, when she
returned to the North, was a confirmed and outspoken Abolitionist
In 1845 she became the wife of Rev. D. P. Livermore, a Universalist
clergyman. Her husband was called to Chicago to become manager and
editor of The New Covenatit. Mrs. Livermore became his associate on the
paper and rendered most valuable service.
When the civil war broke out she went to the front as a nurse, and
was often under the fire of the enemy's guns. There was strong prejudice
against women as army nurses, and much opposition was experienced.
The Sanitar\' Conunission was largely indebted to her for its organized
efforts. When money came slowly, she inaugurated the great Chicago
Soldiers' Fair, which netted $100,000. She was, in fact, the mother of this
movement.
Her book, My Story of the War, has reached a sale of more than fifty
thousand volumes. At the close of the war she turned her energies in
the direction of the advancement of women. She established in Boston
The Agitator, for the advocacy of temperance reform and woman suffrage.
In 1870 The ][ oma?i' s Journal w^'s started and she became the editor, her
own paper becoming absorbed in the new journal.
For thirteen years she delivered on an average one hundred and fifty
lectures per year. She has spoken on a wide range of themes, — biography,
history, politics, religion, temperance, and other reforms, and various de-
partments of sociology in their special bearing upon woman.
444
"ORACE QRBENWOOD."
NIRS. S^R^H JANK (CLARKBt) LIPPINCOTT.
A. D. 1828-
JOURNALIST AND SERIAL WRfTER.
§ER pen name," Greenwood," fits her tastes and talents. As a child
the fields and forests were her delight. In daring deeds she outdid
the boys of the little village of Ponipey, N. Y., where she was
born. One of her delights was to ride young horses bareback.
At school in Rochester she cared nothing for and learned little about
mathematics and science, but she could write verses and sketches with so
much skill that publishers sought her productions before she was fourteen
years old. Her writings were as fresh and racy as a mountain brook. In
later years as well, her productions were full of joyous health. No one
could be like her, nor could she be like anyone else. She was simply and
intensely herself. The following are some of her writings : —
Circcmcood Leaves, History of My Pets^ Poems, RceoUedions of My
Childhood, Haps and Mishaps of, a Tour in liurope, Forest Tragedy and
Other Tales, Stories of Many Lands, History for Children, and Victoria^
Queen of Eni>;land. The latter was brought out simultaneously in London
md New York. .Slie wrote for many periodicals either as editor or con-
tributor and delivered several notable lectures and addresses.
In 1S53 Miss Clarke married I-eander K. Lippincott of Philadelphia.
A sinj^le \ (Tse from one of her poems gives a glimpse of her both as a
horsewoman and poetess.
" As I spring to his back, as I seize the strong rein,
The strength to my spirit returneth again,
The Ixinds are all broken that fettered my mind,
And my cares lx)rne away on the wings of the wind;
My pridf lifts its head, for a season Ixjwed down,
An<l the (jueen in my nature now puts on her crown."
Durinj^ the war she nndcnd excellent service to the cause of the sick
soldiers by lerluring tor thr fairs of the .Sanitary Commission. .She also
read ami kclurcd to the soldiers in camp, and President Lincoln called her
**Cirace (ireenwood, the patriot."
445
CLARA LOU IS K KELLOGG.
A. D. 1842-
AMERICAN OPERA SINGER.
_ .se;H-{-wrBc«
HE first American singer to win recognition in Europe. Her father,
George Kellogg, was an inventor of considerable note. Her mother
T was an excellent musician. Her birthplace was at Sumpterville,
S. C. , but her childhood was spent in the North.
Clara was evidentiy a born singer, for at nine months old she could hum
a tune correctly.
When she was fourteen years old she began a thorough course of mus-
ical studies, and the family removed to New York for that purpose. A
professional career was in the minds of the parents from the start, and all
her training was with that end in view.
She studied both the French and Italian methods of singing. She
made a special study of Marguerite in Gounod's " Faust," and in that no
one has ever equaled her. Berlioz was in the United States at the time
and heard her with astonishment at the skill with which she interpreted the
subtier shadings of the poet, which he believed were beyond the reach of
lyric art.
Upon appearing in Her Majesty's Theatre, London, as Marguerite, she
won a brilliant triumph. She also sang in the Handel Festival held in
the great Crystal Palace, a great honor for an American
When she returned to America the public was ready to receive her,
and everywhere she was met by crowded houses. In one winter she sang
one hundred and twenty-five nights.
After some years she accepted an engagement in Austria, where she
sang in Italian with a German opera company. She even journeyed into
Russia and sang in St. Petersburg.
She has always been a helpful friend to struggling artists. She accu-
mulated a considerable fortune and is generous in distributing to philan-
thropic and charitable enterprises.
Her voice in youth was a high soprano with a range from C to E flat
With age it lost some of the highest notes but gained in power and richness.
446
!
Clara Louis^^^^^<^S9> Afrs.Jan^ ^^^
t^RANCES HODGSON BURNETT.
A. D. 1849-
DIALECT STORY WRITER.
MISS HODGSON was bom in England. In 1865 her father died and
the family removed to America, settling in Newmarket, Tennessee.
The mother with two sons and three daughters sought to earn a
living on the little farm. There were many dark days but all worked
bravely.
Frances felt that she had abilities in other lines and that she could earn
money with the pen as well, or better, than with farm tools.
She began with short stories which were published in PetersarC s
Magazine and Godey s Lady s Book, But she did not win marked suc-
cess or recognition until 1872, when she contributed to Scribner^s Magazine
a dialect story. Surly Tim' s Trouble, Her girlhood days in Manchester
had made her familiar with the Lancashire dialect and she now turned it to
account in the above story. Her writings were now accepted and sought
by publishers.
In 1875 she became the wife of Dr. Swan M. Burnett. They traveled
extensively in Kurope and then took up their residence in Washington.
That Lass W Loicrie' s was published in Scribner^s and afterwards had
a large sale in book form. - Through One Administration, Louisiana, A
Fair Barbarian, and Hditha s Burglar are among her works. She is
probably most wicUly and popularly known through her Little Lord Faunt-
leroy. This, like many of her stories, has been dramatized, thereby adding
to her fame.
The dramatization of novels without any compensation to the author
had lonj^ been a sore trial to English writers. Reade and Dickens among
others had attempted to stop it hut in vain. Mrs. Burnett undertook to
defend herself against the unauthorized use of Little Lord Fauntleroy, and
the court, for the first time, gave to authors the control of the dramatic
right in their stories.
When the triumph was won the authors of England showed their grati-
tude by pi'esenting to Mrs. Burnett a costly diamond bracelet.
449
MRS. FRANK LESLIE.
A. D. 1851-
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS WOMAN AND PUBLISHER.
TRUTH is stranger than fiction.'* Mrs. Leslie's life contains
abundant material for a most fascinating novel. Miriam Flor-
ence Folline is a native of New Orleans, La. , and is a French
Creole by birth. Her girlhood home was one of luxury and her educa-
tional advantages and attainments were of the highest order.
Mr. " Frank Leslie,'* to whom she was married, was by birth an
Englishman and his real name was Henry Carter. He had gained some
reputation as an author using the pen name '* Frank Leslie.** Coming to
this country he took his pen name as his legal name by legislative permis-
sion, and became a publisher in New York city.
Miss Folline chanced to be in New York. One of the editors of ** Les-
lie's Lady* s Magazine'* was ill and without money. Miss Folline offered
to take the place and give the sick woman the salary, which was done.
The invalid died and the benefactress was asked to retain the editorial
position. Mr. Leslie came to admire and love this talented woman and
they were married.
She was of great assistance to him in his business and they were greatly
prospered for some years. But reverses came in the panic of 1877 and Mr.
Leslie was obliged to make an assignment. He was about this time afflicted
with a tumor, which he knew would terminate fatally. To his beautiful
and brave wife he said, " Go to my office, sit in my place and do my work,
until my debts are paid." When he died, there were debts amounting to
$300,000.
By act of legislature she took the name of Frank Leslie and carried on
the business with pronounced success. That a woman of such business
ability, and with heavy responsibilities, should be at the same time a
society leader, is a marvel of versatility. She has shone in European
society, where she was most cordially received. Her command of the
French, Spanish, and Italian languages opened the way, and her personal
beauty and culture made her a center of attraction.
460
"MARIAN HARLAND"
(IVlRS. NIARY VIRGINIA TERHUNK).
A. D. 1831-
CELEBRATED WRITER ON DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
J-*-:
§ER pen name is a household word in our land. Intimate friends tell
us how charmingly she has combined "home making** with literary
work. She possesses a masterful way of making duties fit each
other without fuss or jostle.
Who can say bow many hundred homes have been brightened and
sweetened and made more wholesome in everything from food to atmo-
sphere by her wise and happy writings?
Miss Mary V^irginia Hawes was born in Virginia, though her parents
were natives of New England.
Her education was of the best ; and while pursuing her studies she
showed marked literary ability. At fourteen years of age she began to con-
tribute to a weekly paper in Richmond. At sixteen she wrote Marrying
Through Prudential Motives, which was so popular as to be published in
England and translated into F"rench and finally retranslated into English
and again published. F*inally, it reappeared in the United States in its
altered form.
She became the wife of Rev. Edward Payson Terhune, who has for
many years been pastor of the Puritan Congregational Church of Brook-
lyn, N. V.
Mrs. Terhune' s writing has not all been along home lines, but she has
written several novels ; among them, Alone, a taie of Southern life and
manners, 7 he Hidden Path, True as Steel.
Husbands a fid Homes ; Common Se?ise in the Household ; Breakfast^
Luncheon, and Tea; 'The Dinner Year Book ; Eve's Daughters, or Com-'
mon Sense for Maid, ITi/e, and Mother, are books whose titles speak for
themselves.
.Slie is widely known as a lecturer before Woman*s Councils on **The
Kitchen as a .Moral Agtiicy," "Our Sons and Our Daughters," and "How
to Grow Ok! Cracefully.'*
451
VINNIE REAM HOXIE.
A. D. 1846-
THE FIRST AMERICAN SCULPTOR.
/ I \HIS woman enjoys the distinction of being the first woman to receive
JL an order from the United States government for a statue.
Her birthplace was in Wisconsin but the greater part of her life has
been spent in Washington, D. C. Her father for some years held an im-
portant government ix)sition at the capital city and Miss Ream was in the
employ of the post office department for some time. She at length dis-
covered her own taste and talent for art and devoted her energies to that
end with special reference to sculpture.
Her skill was such that she made busts of several prominent men,
among them General Grant, John Sherman, and Thaddeus Stevens. She
produced also "The Indian Girl,'* a full length figure cast in bronze.
** Miriam '* in marble was one of her noted productions.
But the statue of Abraham Lincoln which she executed in bronze to be
placed in the Capitol was one of the crowning honors of her life. After
having finished the model she took it to Italy to be transferred to marble.
Her parents accompanied her and together they lived in Rome for three
years. For this statue of Lincoln she received fifteen thousand dollars.
While in Europe Gustave Dor6 gave Miss Ream a painting by his own
hand with the inscription, " Offered to \'innie Ream on the part of her af-
fectionate colleague, Gustave Dor6." Spurgeon, Kaulbach, the painter,
and Cardinal Antonelli sat to her for likenesses.
The statue of Admiral Farragut on the square in Washington, named
for the naval hero, is her work. When Miss Ream received the order for
the statue she worked on the model in the ordnance building of the navy
yard and the statue was cast from the metal of tlie propeller of Admiral
Farragut's flagship, the "Hartford." While at work on the model she
married Lieutenant Hoxie.
Facing Farragut square is the residence which Ciptain Hoxie built for
himself and wife. After her marriage she continued to model but for love
rather than money.
452
MARQARET E. SANGSTER.
A. D. 1838-
AUTHOR, AND EDITOR OF HARPER'S BAZAR.
t-^fhi
MRS. Sangster has been connected editorially with five different publi-
cations.
Her early educational advantages, so far as school life was con-
cerned, are few. She was chiefly educated at home. No doubt she had
inborn talent for literary work, but whatever she possessed she also carefully
cultivated. Very early in life she became a contributor to the leading
periodicals, and her first work was produced when she was but seventeen.
Her first editorial engagement was with the Hearth^ and Home, which
continued for two years. Then came six years of service with the Christian
at Work, The next nine years was spent as assistant editor of the Chris-
tian Intclliirenccr. For a part of this time she was also editor of Harper' s
Y'ounj^ People, which was new in the field of periodical literature.
In 1890 she was called to the editorship of Harper' s Bazar, with which
she is still connected.
Mrs. Sangster has found time for considerable miscellaneous work, and
for many years has been ranked as one of our popular American poets.
She has published a Manual of Missions of the Reformed Church in
America, Home Fairies and Heart IHourrs, and a series of Sunday school
books.
Mrs. SangstcT is a prominent member of the Dutch Reformed Church
and devotes nuich time to the work of that body. She is especi.illy f(md
of children. Years ago two of her j)roductions, Elizabeth , A a; ed Nine, and
Are the Children at Home.* were household words, and were in many of
the school readers. .Slie has written in all some half dozen popular books
for children.
She has Inlped a great host <»f friends who have never met her
but throngli her writings have learned to love her. And, further, another
widely scattered company have been given better views of life, and new
courage for di^c barging life's duti(*s, though they scarcely know the name
of Mrs. Sangster.
453
ADELINA NIARIA PATTI.
A. D. IMS-
GREATEST ITALIAN VOCALIST OF THE CENTURY.
•^/-H-K^-
SER father and mother were both operatic singers. At the birth of
Adelina the mother lost her voice and the family in distress re-
moved to America. At four years of age the child showed remark-
able musical talent and received piano instruction from her sister Carlotta
and vocal lessons from her stepbrother Barili, and her brother-in-law
Strakosch, who possessed splendid talents as a singer and had won a con-
siderable reputation.
Thus having the advantage of musical taste and ability inherited from
both parents, she grew up amid musical influences from birth and then re-
ceived most careful and long continued training.
When nine years old she appeared in a concert with Strakosch and won
splendid success. A series of concerts followed and Adelina received as
her share of the profits $10,000. In this series Strakosch and Ole Bull were
the instrumentalists. She was the infantile prima donna.
After several years of success in America she went to Europe with her
brother-in-law, but the London manager would not even give her an op-
portunity to sing. When about to return to the L'nited States the manager
of the Covent Ciarden Theater gave her permission to sing three times, but
without pay. She made her first appearance in Bellini's Sonnambula,
Her triumj^h was immediate, her career was to the people of London like
the blazing of a meteor. The way was then opened for her in France, Ger-
many, Italy, Spain, and Russia.
In 1868 she was married to the Marquis de Caux in London and ten
years later was divorced. In 1886 she was married to Signor Nicolini, an
opera singer.
Besides a voice of* exceptional beauty, range, and flexibility, she pos-
sessed rare powers as an actress. Though too small of stature to person-
ate the great characters of the highest style of tragic opera, she did excel
in parts requiring archness or coquetry, also in pathos and sentiment, notably
in Donizetti's Lucia or Gounod's Marguerite.
454
ELIZABETH STORRS MEAID.
A. D. 1835-
FIRST PRESIDENT OF MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE.
->--ll~<-
MRS. MEAD is the daughter of Col. Chas. E. Billings of Conway,
Mass. Her mother was sister of Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D.D.
She is thus of the best New England stock. After receiving her
education, chiefly at Ipswich, Mass. , she entered upon the work of teaching.
For six years she was engaged with her sister in conducting a private
school for young ladies at Andover, Mass.
In 1858 she became the wife of Rev. Hiram Mead, D.D., and removed
to South Hadley, the seat 9I Mount Holyoke Seminary.
Dr. Mead was subsequently called to Oberlin College, where he died
after some years of service. Mrs. Mead turned again to teaching, spending
two years at Oberlin and six at Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass. She
became widely known as an instructor of marked ability.
While spending some time in Europe she was called to the presidency
of Mount Holyoke Seminary and College.
Mrs. Mead entered upon her duties as president in 1890. The recent
remarkable growth of the college is largely due to her noble personality
and wise leadership.
One of tlie college trustees had this to say of Mrs. Mead before she
entered up«>n her duties: "The friends of Holyoke are to be congratulated
on the prospect of soon seeing at the head a president who unites so much
of modern learning antl culture with so much of the spirit of Mary Lyon ;
and whoM- anil)ition it will be to realize the ideal of a Christian college,
which shall give the broadest and best education in literature, science, and
art, and all consecrated to tlie highest and best ends.'* Mrs. Mead has
more th.ui m<t the highest expectations.
Tlie institution lias had an honorable history, filling a unicjue place in
our American educational life. A j)ioneer in an almost untried field, it has
had many followers. It has a present strength which gladdens the hearts
of alumn;e and friends, and a future most promising.
455
ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.
A. D. 1844-
AUTHOR OF "GATES AJAR," ETC.
' HE was first of all fortunate in her parentage. Her father was Pro-
fessor of Sacred Rhetoric in Andover Theological Seminary. Many
who never knew him otherwise, have been helped by his little book,
The Still Hour, Her mother was also an author of note.
Elizabeth was given another name at birth, but upon the death of Mrs.
Phelps, the daughter took her mother's name in full and by her writings
has perpetuated the work and name of her noble mother.
When the child was four years of age the family moved from Boston to
Andover. Here she grew up in the midst of strong intellectual and spiritual
influences. She received a thorough and liberal education which admirably
fitted her for the life of an author.
But hers was not a cold and formal intellectuality. Her imagination
was vivid and her heart warm. She kept in close touch with the great
movements of the times and engaged in them. Her activity in lines of
charity, temperance, and reform kept her heart warmly in sympathy with
struggling humanity. The life of factory girls attracted her attention.
She studied the conditions at first hand and sought to be of help in
improving their lot. Her book A Silenl Partner was written as a result
of her observation and efforts.
After slavery was abolished she saw that the next great national and
world-wide movement was to be for the betterment of woman's condition.
She believed in a larger, sweeter, purer womanhood and so wrote with a
purpose.
Of her many books we mention a few : Up Hill, Avis, Gates Ajar
(this book passed through twenty editions in one year), Hedged In, The
Trotty Book, Old Maid' s Paradise, Beyond the Gates, Jack the Fisherman^
Songs of the Silent World, A Singular Life.
Possessing thus a happy and well-balanced combination of thinking and
working, her productions have had a healthy tone.
In 1888 Miss Phelps became the wife of Rev. Herbert D. Ward
456
r
\^
NIRS. POTTER PALMER.
PRESIDENT BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS COLUMBIAN EXPO-
SITION.
MISS BERTHA HONORE was born and educated in Louisville,
Kentucky. She also studied in the convent school at George-
town, D. C.
She became the wife of Potter Palmer, the Chicago millionaire, in 1871,
and soon became, and has since continued to be, the recognized social leader
of fashionable society in Chicago.
But Mrs. Palmer has marked intellectual as well as social qualities. She
is a skilled musician, a proficient linguist, a brilliant writer, a skilled parlia-
mentarian, and a woman of marked executive ability. She was chosen
president of the Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition at
Chicago, and in the interests of the exposition visited Europe in 1891 and
enlisted the interest and co-operation of many leading women of Europe.
Mrs. Palmer is noted not only as a social leader but her gifts for state
and local charities as well as private gifts are in generous proportion to her
fortune.
The Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition ordered a
portrait of Mrs. Palmer to have a place in the Assembly Hall of the Wo-
man's Building. Mr. Anders L. Zorn was chosen as the artist.
At the unveiling of the portrait addresses were made by several of the
prominent women. Among other things this was said : '* In after times,
when our names have been forgotten, those who come after us will look upon
this j)ortrait and see not only the likeness of our president but the attributes
which surrounded her, that helped us to help the women of this centur)'.
Her genius has for three years led us over mountains of difficulty, through
valleys of humiliation, to the crowning peaks of victory, never listening to
such word as ' fail.'
" We court not the titles of rank in this land of ours, where every wo-
man may he a (jueen, and when the women of America choose a leader and
representative she is not only a queen but queenly. If we cannot crown
our Queen we will present you our Queen already crowned."
459
PUNDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI.
EDUCATED HINDU DEFENDER OF CHILD-WIDOWS.
R AM ABA I was fortunate in having a father who, contrary to all Hindu
customs, believed in the education of woman. Ramabai's mother
was educated by her father and so she inherited from both parents
a love for learning. But so unpopular were the views of Ramabai's father
that, though himself a pundit, he was obliged to. withdraw to the jungles
and take up his abode there. Here Ramabai was instructed by her father.
She showed great aptitude and could repeat from memory 23,000 verses of
the Hindu Shastras.
When she was sixteen years old famine came and for eleven days they
lived on water and leaves. They left their jungle home and for some years
the father was a wandering teacher. Father and mother died and she had
only a brother to care for her. Ramabai became herself a lecturer, advo-
cating the education of women and the abandonment of the custom of child
marriages. Her learning attracted great attention. At Calcutta the pun-
diti, or learned men, summoned her to appear before them. A long and
searching examination followed. She passed with high honors and received
the title of Sarasvati.
When she seemed to have attained great success her brother died. To
be left without a male relative in India is more than a personal bereavement.
Some six months after this, however, she was happily married to an edu-
cated Bengali gentleman, though ef lower caste than herself. But they had
both thrown off the old Hindu beliefs.
After nineteen months of married life the husband died, and Ramabai
was again alone with her little baby girl. She was now a widow, and
worst of all in India, a sonless widow, and despised and shunned by all
relatives because she had broken caste by her marriage. She faced the
world and again began lecturing.
After a time she turned her eyes toward England, and embarked for
that far-off land. She had for some time contemplated accepting Chris-
tianity. While living in Calcutta she received from the leader of the sect
of the Brahmo-somaj a copy of one of his books, which consisted of moral
460
PUNDITA RAMABAt SARASVATI.
precepts drawn from the sacred books of many religions. The larger num-
ber of these extracts were from the New Testament, and their lofty moral
tone attracted Ramabai's attention. She studied the Bible for herself, first
in Sanskrit and then in English, and by degrees became convinced of the
truth of the Gospel, and after four years of anxious thought was baptized.
In England she worked diligently to perfect herself in English, and after
a time became professor of Sanskrit in the Ladies' College at Cheltenham.
But all this time her heart was with the poor little child-widows of India.
She was invited to come to America to attend the graduation of her cousin
Joshee from a medical college in Philadelphia. Here Ramabai began a
careful study of our public school system and especially of the kindergar-
tens. She was a most devoted admirer of Froebel and his child studies,
believing that the principles could be applied in India.
Her training and plans were at last completed. She determined to de-
vote herself to the task of educating and enlightening the high-caste Hindu
widows. She traveled westward to the Pacific coast, arousing public inter-
est in her beloved cause. A society with Edward E. Hale and Phillips
Brooks at its head was formed. Christians of all names, and even Jeu^s,
responded to the appeals. Six years after leaving home Ramabai was
again in I^ombay, and within six weeks had opened her school. In 1898
350 child-widows had passed through the school. Fourteen had been
trained as teachers, eight as nurses, seven as missionary assistants ; ten had
homes c)f their own.
In times of famine, when these child-widows are turned out to die or be
picked lip l)y iuiiiian (1< vils that they may rear them for lives of shame,
Ramabai has gone far inland and rescued great numbers of these poor little
creatures from dtiUh or a worse fate. In her school-home they have
hccomt' healthy, happy children living in a new world of Christian sym-
pathy, and have grown into noble womanhood.
4G1
TSZE HSI AN.
THE FAMOUS EMPRESS DOWAGER OF CHINA.
SER full name is Tszehi Toanyu Kangi Chaoyu Chuangcheng Shokung
Chinhein Chungsih. She is the shrewdest woman in Asia, **The
only man in China,*' and probably exercises the most power of any
woman in the world, to-day. Victoria has influence ; Tsze Hsi An has
power and it is of her own getting.
To begin with she is not a Chinese, but a Manchu, though born in
Pekiflfe.
It may be noted in passing that the Manchu Tartars seized the throne
of the Chinese Empire in 1644 ^^^ have kept it to the present time.
We must not overlook another woman, Tsze Hi, who became the princi-
pal wife of Prince Chun, the emperor's brother, and Tsze An became the
secondary wife of Emperor Hienfung. The emperor had no child but his
brother's wife gave birth to a son and she was raised to the rank of empress
though still obliged to yield precedence to Tsze An.
Troublous times came and the royal family was obliged to flee into Tar-
tary. Here in exile the emperor died leaving his tottering throne to the
son of Tsze Hi.
Tsze An, the liubject of our sketch, now made herself felt in the game
of royalty. By an unwritten law of China she should have terminated her
life as a mark of respect, being childless. But she conveniently followed
another law which requires the children of inferior wives to regard the chief
wife as their mother. Tsze An thus concluded not to die and the young
prince came under the joint control of the two dowagers.
In due time he was proclaimed emperor and the two mothers as regents.
When he arrived at the proper age he assumed the reins of government and
the ladies retired to the background. Soon after he died of smallpox,
1874, and the two dowagers again came forward.
Being women they could not reign in their own right, but reign they
would somehow, so they looked about for a child to adopt.
They found a nephew of Tsze Hi, three years of age. That child is
now Emperor Kuangsii, about thirty years of age, and childless. When
462
TSZE HSI AN.
Kuangsii was about eight years of age his aunt died and Tsze An was left ■
sole dowager, master of the child and of the empire.
The young prince became of age in 1889 and was crowned emperor,
but he was little more than a puppet in the hands of the dowager.
At the beginning of the war with Japan the dowager stepped in and sent
her old favorite Li Hung Chang to Japan to make peace.
More recently again, when the emperor was starting out on a series of
reforms by the adoption of Western ideas, she assumed control of afifairs.
All the sweeping decrees of the emperor were annulled, six of the leaders
of the reform party were executed. Among them was Chang Yin Yuan,
president of the Board of Revenue and former minister to the United
States.
It was announced that the young emperor had committed suicide —
which is a Chinese form of execution. This proved to be untrue. For
some reason best known to herself the despotic dowager proposed to keep
the puppet alive.
The true inwardness of the recent war with China cannot yet be written.
The astute and masterful dowager has been- put to a severe test, but her
iron hand does not seem to have lost its hold on the scepter.
463
HELEN MILLER GOULD.
A.D. 1868-
A PRINCESS AMONG GIVERS.
•je;/-H-Kr9c-
HE gives not only her money but herself to the work of relieving dis-
tress and making the world better.
Helen Gould earns the friendship of those she helps by giving her
personal sympathy and intelligent interest with her benefactions.
She is the daughter of Jay Gould, the famous financier. Her education
was obtained under carefully chosen private instructors. This was supple-
mented by a course in the New York Law University, that she might have
a knowledge of business for the management of her own affairs.
We mention some of her noble gifts : For the Library of the University
of the City of New York, $250,000, with $60,000 added later ; for the St.
Louis cyclone sufferers in 1896, $100,000 ; to the United States Govern-
ment at the outbreak of the war with Spain, $100,000, for relief of the
soldiers at Camp Wycoff, Long Island. Rutgers, Vassar, and Mount Hol-
yoke Colleges have received generous gifts ; also the Engineering School of
the University of the City of New York ; the Naval Branch of the Young
Men's Christian Associatio 
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